Ab Initio-Al Principio-From the Start
by Daxn
Summary: For many, "Lesson Zero" was the episode where FiM metaphorically "grew the beard", since it established that Twilight's duty to send reports weekly ended. However, the events could have taken a different direction entirely. For the example, what if the Mane 5 did the sane thing at the wrong moment? What if Celestia wasn't so merciful towards Twilight?
1. Chapter 1

Ponyville was in an uproar. Unicorns and earth ponies created a terrifyingly big rabble, trampling and stomping whoever was unfortunate enough to be in its way, while the pegasi were flying over that rabble in a compact formation, diving to the ground from time to time looking for their prey.

Said prey was a red stallion with a cheap doll in his mouth. He was, like pretty much everyone else there, determined in taking and keeping the doll, even if it meant going against all of the two hundred ponies living in the town.

Twilight Sparkle was watching the scene with horror, since she knew that the triggering cause of that situation was her own fault. Indeed, what started as an attempt to cause a "friendship problem" using an old doll from her distant past, three reluctant school-aged fillies and a "I Want it, I Need it" spell, turned into a civil war without bloodshed for the toy.

Since Twilight was busy staring at the mess she created with so few ingredients, she didn't notice the presence of five shapes hidden by the dust that were running in the opposite direction than the crowd. The identity of the shapes' was soon revealed: they were her friends, namely Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. For some strange reason, they weren't attracted by the doll, nor were they trampled by the fighting ponies.

The first pony to reach Twilight was Rainbow Dash.

The cyan mare asked worried to Twilight:

"What's going on, Twilight? The whole town seems in love with that mass of deformed fabric!"

"Yes, I know and it's my fault!" the reply showed more panic than guilt "I've tried to create a 'friendship problem' for my weekly letter to my mentor, since I forgot to write one in the past days, but..."

"But?"

Twilight raised her voice:

"The whole thing degenerated! I used one of my old dolls, a spell that allowed imitated mind control, and Cutie Mark Crusaders."

Rainbow Dash only leered. Twilight, noticing that, rumbled:

"Yes, you heard correctly: I used Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as one of the elements for my plotted problem. To do so, I just hid in the bush, waited for their arrival, teleported in their little game of ball - destroying the ball in the process - greeted them, offered the doll..."

Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes in confusion, put her front hooves in, and said: "Woho, woho, wohoooo! Calm down, Twi! I could not understand you a single word."

Sighing, the purple unicorn started again, this time much slower:

"Alright. I hid in the bush, I waited for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to arrive in the place, decided to teleport in the ball, destroying it. I greeted them, showed them the doll, and since they didn't appreciate it, I casted the 'I Want It, I Need It'."

Rainbow looked around her, seeing the same gigantic fight among adult ponies, and asked:

"Aand... in what way is this brawl linked to three fillies fighting over an enchanted doll ?"

"I was getting there! I tried to separate them, but to no avail. I saw Big Macintosh passing by not too far away, and so I asked him for help. However, I forgot that one of the side effects of that spell cast on objects was the instant charming of the observer towards the object. Now, consider that the stallion has necessarily seen the doll. Now, you know that Applejack's farm is on the other side of the town, right?"

Rainbow Dash nodded.

Twilight Sparkle screamed:

"And so everyone else saw it!"

Rainbow's eyes widened:

"And you did that... because you were late? This isn't something that a sane pony does!"

The purple unicorn glared at Rainbow:

"Do you have any idea of what we are talking about? I'm late for an assignment from Princess Celestia herself! The ruler of this and the bringer of the sun, my mentor! If I don't fix it now, I'm in trouble!"

"I still don't see the problem…"

Twilight grabbed Rainbow's fur: "DON'T SEE THE PROBLEM? She is my teacher, and as a student, I must comply to her order: until now, I have been always a dutiful and punctual student.

But if I fail, if I am late for just one time, she might question my dedication as well, and since she is my teacher, she might give me a test. And if I can't pass the test? I will be punished like all the bad students, with the flunking.

But Celestia isn't subject to rules. She makes them ! So instead of letting me flunk, she can send me to... MAGIC KINDERGARTEN!"

Rainbow Dash was left confused by Twilight's rant about Princess Celestia and being a good student, while the purple mare was picturing, once again, the scene of her in the middle of a group of 3-4 years old foals laughing at her failure.

The mares arrived at Twilight, but when they saw that their friend was staring at the sky, they said nothing, fearing that they could interrupt an important process.

Suddenly, a blinding light spread in the marsh where the citizens were fighting and a unique voice resounded from it.

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!"

It was Celestia's voice, and unlike on pretty much every other occasion, she sounded really angry at something... or somebody.

The arrival of the solar goddess distracted the denizen of the town for a brief second, allowing Celestia to undo the spell casted on the doll; once that happened, every pony that fought for the doll stopped, and after looking at the mass of an old fabric with indifference or even disgust, everyone left the marsh, the only exceptions being Twilight, her friends, and Princess Celestia.

The white alicorn walked dramatically slowly to Twilight.

"Twilight, meet me in the Library. We have much to discuss," she ordered and then left without saying any other word.

Sighing in defeat, the purple pony started to walk away, towards her home.

"Goodbye, girls. If you care," she said sadly "I will be in the Magic Kindergarten... back in Canterlot." Then she headed for her destination.

The five mares gasped.

"Magic Kindergarten?" whispered Fluttershy.

"Canterlot?", asked a nonplussed Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie, after jumping incredibly high in the air, shrieked "We're never gonna see Twilight ever again!"

Rarity, as her usual, proceeded to place her left forehoof on her closed eyes, moaning, crying and pulling hairs of her mane like a prefica in the process, and then said with a voice bordering with the spirit of an opera character, for the third time in the day "Of the horrible things that could have happened, this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!"

Applejack was more collected; after taking a look at the reaction of her friends, the orange pony sighed.

"Uh, and so, what are we going to do?"

Rainbow stated with decisiviness: "We need to act, that's for sure! We can't leave Twilight anging!" then she started to fly away… only to be pulled back by a force.

Turning her head, the cyan mare saw her multicolored tail held by a blue aura, the same aura that engulfed Rarity's horn.

"As much as you would like to take the matters in your hooves, I can't allow you to interfere. I think that I know you well enough to tell that you would only cause more problems than you would solve."

The pegasus asked back: "Interfere with what? And cause what troubles? Explain!"

Sighing, Rarity spoke up:

"I thought it was clear as day, Rainbow Dash. The Princess asked Twilight to have a private meeting with Twilight and Twilight only: it would be rude to step in violently."

Rainbow Dash hovered near Rarity, raised her front hooves and moved them frantically.

"Celestia might punish her! And, if Twilight gets punished by the Princess, we might not see Twilight ever again! You heard her, right?"

Rarity sniffed with pride, and reasserted her mane as a way to show coldness and composure over the matter, sharply contrasting with the bit of drama performed by her few minutes ago.

"It's also true that our purple friend tends to lose the grasp on her mind when confronted with the inability to comply an order of a superior, and she tends to inflate the punishments that she may receive. Also, I don't think Princess Celestia would be more upset than usually after this accident. In fact, our coming might be only salt rubbed into a wound."

Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves: "I am still not convinced. I think that we have the right to know what awaits our close friend, and not even the Princess shall stop us from knowing," Rainbow Dash landed, and spoke to the other mares: "So, what do you think about that? Shall we go to Twilight's Library now, or wait for the dawn of the next day?"

Applejack spoke up: "I think we should wait for tomorrow. Interrupting Celestia while she talks to Twilight would get us into trouble."

Pinkie Pie, with a tone more serious than her usual, but still a bit cheerful, answered: "I think we can wait. If everything goes well, we can celebrate afterwards."

Fluttershy whispered: "My thoughts are the same as of Applejack and Pinkie, Dash... if you don't mind..."

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow said: "Rarity, you won. We will see tomorrow. Now goodbye, the soup cans are calling me." With that she left. Shortly afterwards, the other mares also divided.

Meanwhile, at the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight Sparkle was moving upstairs sadly; she was going to meet Princess Celestia to receive a punishment for what she had done to the town, and, maybe, for her lateness.

Once Twilight reached the floor upstairs, she saw Celestia standing up in the middle of the room. The diarch didn't show any signs of anger or strong disappointment towards Twilight, and was once again in her calm and composed mood. However, this detail didn't decreased the terror that filled the purple pony.

Twilight bowed down to the ground, and started to chant her excuses like a litany:

"I am really sorry for the delay of my work, I am a bad student..."

Princess Celestia gently moved a hoof over Twilight's mouth.

"There is no need to apologize like that, I'm not upset for your tardiness. What worries me and ultimately makes me act, is your reaction at the tardiness."

Twilight gulped, while the Princess went towards the window.

"You could have sent me a letter apologizing for the lack of the Friendship report;

even just sending the report next week would be fine."

The alicorn suddenly turned, and pressed her muzzle on Twilight's, scaring the latter. Celestia said with a slightly hissing voice:

"But you lost control of yourself. You arranged a plan to create a friendship problem, solve it, and write a report. Staging a problem wasn't exactly the assignment that I gave to you, but let's ignore that for now. Your plan included the unwilling participation of three fillies and, later on, the whole town."

Twilight started to sweat profusely, and moved her eyes from right to left, as if she was looking for a way to get out from that situation.

"Now, it isn't the first time you worried about the punctuality, nor is it the first time you overreacted to something. And this time it was very irresponsible, childishly so even, too.

As much as it pains me to say this and as much as it will probably hurt you, if you act like a foal, you shall be punished like if you were one..."

Twilight raised her head, and watched Celestia's eyes in sign of submission.

"Is it what I think it is?" she asked.

Celestia answered while reaching the balcony: "Yes. You will attend to the Magic Kindergarten for a term. You may pack up right now, since I will fill the papers as soon as I come back to my rooms."

Then, the white alicorn spread out her wings, got up on the balcony's edge, and flew away, leaving a shocked purple unicorn behind.

Twilight tried to say something, but no words came out from it. She was too shocked and desperate to say anything but gibberish about "failure," "humiliation" and the like.

After about ten minutes of ranting and weeping, Twilight stood up again, and, sighing, proceeded to pack the luggages, while a "too-happy-for-the-situation" Spike helped her.

[hr]

The Dawn, with pink hoofs and golden mane, once again rose over Equestria, and with it every creature in Equestria. However, the rising wasn't at the same rhythm for everyone, nor was it pleasurable at the same level.

Twilight Sparkle, once her closed eyes were hit by the rays of the light coming from the window, groaned, and rolled out of her bed onto the floor; she was too demoralized and drowsy to do anything more complicated than breath and crawl around like a slug.

Meanwhile, the usually lazy late-riser Spike sprang out of his bed/dog basket cheerfully, went into the kitchen, and proceeded to make sandwiches and eggs for breakfast at demonic pace, all the while singing happily a whole repertory of goliardic songs.

Twilight, still crawling, once she was out of her room, proceeded to do the insane task of descending the stairs without raising a single leg, but just slithering on the steps, simply ignoring the pain caused by doing such action. Finally, after ten minutes of slow and painful crawling, Twilight Sparkle woke up completely. She yawned, stirred, and got up on all four.

"So, Spike, is breakfast ready?"

The dragon didn't say anything, and just served a plate of eggs while singing.

"You seem pretty happy to make breakfast for me today, Spike. That's unusual for you. Is something the matter?"

Spike chirped: "This is my third-to-final service I will do for you for four months. Then I will be absolutely free! Four months of pure freedom!"

Twilight pretended to not have heard that, and just ate the food without saying a word, since she wasn't in mood for an argument with her servant, nor she was interested to teach Spike some compassion and continence.

Once she finished her breakfast, Twilight asked with a bored voice where the baggages were, and what were the departure times of the trains. At the first question, Spike answered by pointing to the luggages stacked up near the door; at the second question, he shrugged and said: "No idea. I haven't checked them yet, since last night I wasn't exactly fond into walking to the train station".

Sighing, Twilight Sparkle levitated the luggages, strapped them onto her back, slightly pened the door with a creak... and shutting them again, remembering she didn't check if everything was in the suitcases.

So, she put the baggages down, placed them on the ground, sorted them by size, asked Spike to take the list of the things to be packed in the suitcases, then proceeded to list everything that was contained in the bags. Once done with the control of her luggage, Twilight put the items back in their slots in the suitcases, closed the packs and then strapped some them back on her back, the rest was levitated.

When Twilight looked at the clock hanging on the wall just above one of her shelves, she saw that this entire operation took a whooping time of thirty five minutes and twenty seconds. in a hurry, she ran out of her house... and tripped on the step which caused her to hit the ground with her chin, and, somehow, sent the suitcases flying away from Twilight's body, opening in mid-flight, and landing softly in a puddle of mud.

The reaction of the purple pony at the sight of her belongings scattered all over the place and/or covered in mud was one of pure rage and frustration. As she picked up everything that she had lost, and tried to save some papers from turning into a shapeless mass of wooden fibers, she said:

"Those suitcases... they never stop breaking at the least convenient moment! And look at this! LOOK AT THIS! It will take me almost an hour to put everything back in the suitcases, and another hour to wash the luggages!"

Meanwhile, Spike laughed under his fake mustache - which he put on for that moment - at Twilight's misfortune. However, as soon as his purple suspended superior noticed that, she gave him an order to help her with cleaning and picking up the pieces of the earlier disaster.

[hr]

Two hours later, Twilight Sparkle and Spike were finally done with the travel supplies: the suitcases were clean once again, albeit a bit wet; the minor papers had been rewritten in a hurry; the damaged important papers muddled throught; and the clothes changed.

Twilight triumphantly strapped the last baggage to her back, opened the door, and came out of the Library once again, determined to reach the train station.

As Twilight walked towards her destination, she thought about an issue that she had ignored until then: her parents.

After all, the apartament in Canterlot that she had before coming to Ponyville was property of Celestia, and was just on an extended loan. Surely, by then, that apartament had to be occupied by another pony, leaving Twilight with a single option, besides rent a very expensive flat - to live with her parents - and the prospect wasn't exactly exhilarating. The reason lay in her parents' behaviour: while Night Light, her father, was a strict parent, Twilight Velvet was a very overprotective and smothering mother. As much as Twilight loved them, their ways to act towards her were a tad bit annoying.

Also, their reaction to the news that their younger offspring was now being sent back to the Kindergarten by her teacher was going to be ruinous: while Night Light would be very disappointed and worried about the costs of having their daughter in his house while having a minuscle pension, Twilight Velvet would burst in joy and happiness, since she was going to see her daughter every day... and have the possibility to treat Twilight Sparkle like a foal once again, thanks to the occasion.

Twilight sighed sadly. Those four months were going to be very long and wearing.

Her train of thoughs stopped when a loud scream came from behind her:

"TWILIGHT!"

She rotated her head quickly, and saw five familiar shapes that brightened her mood up: her friends.

Twilight ran towards them, and said: "Oh, sorry girls, I forgot to say goodbye to you!"

The five friends looked at her a bit confused.

Pinkie Pie recovered from her shock first and asked "Goodbye? Why?"

Twilight hung her head: "I'd prefer to not tell you, Pinkie... it's... a bit secret..."

Rainbow Dash exclaimed in disbelief: "Secret? What do you have to hide from us?"

"Yeah, what?"

"I... I don't know if to ask you... I don't want to intrude..."

"Twilight, what concerns you? Why do you want to hold a secret?"

Then the five friends stared at poor Twilight in pure curiosity, making the aforomentioned pony sweat. In an attempt to cop out, she answered only: "It's... embrassassing. Really, really, REALLY embarassing..."

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy asked in unison: "What is so embarassing that you can't tell us?"

Once the question faded, Pinkie Pie chirped: "Wait, what does 'embarassing' mean? Is that some kind of icing?" But everybody decided to ignore her.

"Well..." realizing that she had no way to avoid the interrogation, Twilight decided to cut the bull's head, and procceded to take a long breath before saying the big news.

"Alright, girls, listen up: you remember the incident of yesterday, the one that saw the whole town trying to get a doll?"

The five nodded.

"Well, Princess Celestia decided that I needed a punishment for my misdeed, and sent me..."

"And sent you?" They all leaned forward in anticipation.

"To the Magic Kindergarten, in Canterlot."

The five friends gasped, and everyone expressed their opionion: from the simple "that's awful" of Fluttershy, to the long and lyrical cry of Rarity, the Twilight's friends had their turn to show their grief over the purple pony's departure.

Once the atmosphere relaxed a bit again, Twilight Sparkle sighed, and returned to her walk.

"The moment has passed, I am going to the station." Twilight adjusted the luggages: " Goodbye, see you in four months."

The five answered back.

[hr]

Four hours later, in Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle had finally reached the neighborhood where her parents' house lay. While she was walking in the empty paved streets of the area, Twilight looked around her to find out how much the neighborhood had changed since her moving to the "Ivory Tower" and later on to Ponyville. Not at all, apparently, since every building, street lamp, trash cans full of syringes and druggie spot were still there just like ten years ago. It seemed that the whole area had fallen into a temporal stasis, since she had left it, making her even more depressed.

Finally, she reached the gate of her house, a three-floors villa, different from other buildings in Canterlot thanks to its "Liberty" style.

For the first time in years, Twilight rang her old house's bell, and awaited response from whoever was in the house.

After few minutes, a gray mare with straight black mane exited from the house's door. She walked slowly towards the gate... but upon seeing the visitor, she screamed "Twilight!" and rushed to the gate, opening it carelessly.

Twilight recognized the mare: she was Sedula Serva, the valet of Twilight's household. Twilight could remember the times she was forced to interrupt her studies to let Sedula pass the rag, or when a filly Twilight ranted on the order of the books that the valet placed.

Now, her biggest annoyance was likely to be the only light of sanity in the darkness of the days to come.

Sedula, while hugging Twilight, exclaimed with a voice affected by old age:

"Twilight! So much time has passed! What brings you back home?"

Twilight, while gently taking off the valet's hooves, smiled weakly, and said: "The thing that brought me here isn't good..."

Sedula pointed at the door.

"If you don't want to talk about it, it's not necessary. Now come in: I'm certain that your parents willcertainly want to see you," then she walked away. Twilight followed.

The interior of the building was... different, from what Twilight remembered about her Canterlot's house: she didn't recalled small ivory statues in niches around the walls, or expensive paintings, nor did she recall to have ever seen a big chandelier in the living room.

A male voice called from upstairs.

"Who is it, Sedula?"

Sedula answered chirping: "It's Twilight, sir!"

"Don't be silly. My wife is in the bedroom!" The voice started to sound closer as the pony it belonged to made his way to the entrance hall.

"Not Twilight Velvet, sir, but your daughter," Sedula explained with a happy smile on her face.

"Now you are just making a fool of me." The sound of hooves treading the soft carpet stopped. "What would be Twilight doing here? She would certainly let us know before visiting. Anyway, just send whoever it is here." The hoofsteps echoed once more and vanished.

The gray mare pointed at the stairs: Twilight understood, and went upstairs.

Twilight's father was sitting on a red couch, and was drinking a glass of sprizt from a cocktail glass: he seemed pretty relaxed, joyful even.

"It's a pity that I am going ot break his joy..." thought Twilight.

"Twilight? So it really is you! And I thought Sedula was just pulling my leg! What brings you here, my beloved daughter?" Night Light took a small sip and smiled at her warmly. "Feel free to sit down."

Twilight sat down on one of the red couches in the room.

"Well... not a good thing."

The cheerful demeanor of Night Light disappeared in a whim. The sudden change to a cold stare scared Twilight to the core.

The tone of the father got serious: "What happened?"

Stuttering, she said: "I'm here becuase Princess Celestia punished me with flunking."

His eyes widened: "Flunking? But you are out of the school system!"

"That's the problem! Since I finished my studies, flunking means starting all over again..."

"You mean... you are in the Magic Kindergarten now?"

Twilight nodded.

Soon after that, Night Light was on fire.

-

Once Night Light was extinguished by the combined efforts of both Sedula and Twilight Sparkle, the latter said, panting and with her mane slightly burned:

"Listen, father, you didn't caught the meaning of my words..."

The father, with his coat burned and his tail reduced to ashes by the self-combustion, started to twitch.

"I didn't understood what?" he said, "Princess Celestia decided that for your doings the best course of actions was to force you to redo the whole education all over again. That is all. Also, she evicted you from your house, I suppose."

Twilight put her left hoof on her face, and said with an irritated voice:

"Father, first of all, Celestia didn't evict me from my house in Ponyville. Also, I have to attend the Kindergarten only for a term, so I will be there for four months."

Night Light, clearly comforted from the news, sighed in relief and with a calmer tone he asked Sedula to get rid of the destroyed couch where he was sitting: the gray mare nodded, and slowly yet effortlessly moved the piece of furniture out of the room.

Then, Night light returned his attention to Twilight:

"Well, the moment of rage has passed, proceed to explain the reason for your punishment."

Twilight sat down on one of the non-damaged sofas, and told the whole tale to her father, leaving nothing to the imagination.

"To be honest, I'm not surprised to find out that the cause of your punishment ultimately was your incapability to deal with deadlines and authorities at the same time."

The purple pony looked unamused at her father. She was tired of being reminded of the cause of all her problems in the past two days, and the fact that her own father didn't say a word in her defense was even more depressing, even if expected, considered Night's personality.

"Thanks that you have reminded me of the painfully obvious facts, father,." said Twilight with an irritated voice "I'm going to unpack my luggages: is my old room free? Or do I need to unpack my luggages in the guest ones?"

Night Light, while walking out of the room, answered: "Ask your mother; she said that your old bedroom must be used only on special occassions."

Twilight was a bit surprised at that.

"What special occasions? My mother wasn't prone to invite ponies in this house, I can't really imagine what kind of occasions would trigger unlocking of my bedroom. Or why my bedroom has to be locked in the first place..."

"I don't know. So far she unlockes it once per month, carrying gray bags in, but she never let me or Shining get in, and since we don't even dare to imagine what's there, we never tried to step in. I think you are the only one allowed to see it, but better ask her."

A bit freaked out by such information, Twilight nodded, and moved towards the bedroom of her parents located on the third floor; as she ascended the marble steps, Twilight thought about the strange behaviour of her mother regarding her old bedroom. What could have triggered it, and, above all, what so important could possibly be in the room that it had to be locked and opened only scarcely for depositing of something contained in gray bags? It was weird, it seemed wrong... it seemed just plain obscure and incredibly intricate for her mother.

Her thoughs stopped dead in their tracks at an acute shriek.

"Twily! My beloved Twily!"

A white and purple blur catapulted itself over the purple mare and knocked her to ground, drawing a grunt of pain.

"Why did it take you so long to get back to me? You made me worry SO MUCH!" After saying this, the shape hugged her tightly..

As she tried to fight off her mother, Twilight said: "Mother... please... stop..."

Twilight Velvet, while still hugging her, cooed: "I can't! I'm so glad that you came back that I can't stop myself from snuggling you!"

Desperate for air, Twilight fought with all her might to break free from her mother's snuggly iron grasp. Alas, she could have just as well been glued to her mother's chest and so after about a minute of struggling she decided to spare her remaining energy and wait for the hug to end on its own. 

When Vevet terminated her cuddling session with her reluctant offspring, she got back on her legs, and asked with an irritatingly sweet voice: "So, why have you come back to me, Twily? Are you in need of some love from me?"

Twilight huffed, then she answered in annoyance:

"No, mother, it wasn't because I missed you; I am here because Princess Celestia has stated that I need an extra term at the Magic Kindergarten in Canterlot, after a freaky accident that I'd wish to avoid recalling. Since my workplace-home got sequestred, my only option was to return to live under this roof, and that's the only reason for why I am in this house."

Twilight Velvet looked with widened eyes at Twilight Sparkle and questioned:

"And that is all? Well then, why you were so sad then?"

The purple pony felt her jugular vein grow in size, and her teeth grind.

"And that is all? AND THAT IS ALL? I made a mistake, Princess Celestia punished me, and starting tomorrow I will be attending to Magic Kindergarten for four months with fillies and colts that are there for actually learn something! How can I not be at least upset?"

The white mare put her left hoof over the purple mare's shoulder.

"Aaah, now I understand, you don't want to go to the Kindergarten. Well, better go to your room, so we can have a nice talk in private. Oh, and I also have a surprise for you." Then she levitated the luggages with magic.

Twilight Sparkle's eyes widened, at the phrasing of her mother. If her father's words were any indication, her old bedroom was never opened for anypony, and was always locked. If Twilight Velvet decided to open it to her punished daughter, telling her that she needed to talk in the process, then either Velvet wanted to punish Twilight further, or just both metaphorically and factically sealed the door for the purple mare's homecoming.

While Twilight's mind buzzed with theories, the white mare delicately placed the baggages on the ground, levitated a copper key hanging from a hook on the wall, then she placed the key in the lock, unlocking the door. The old wooden door opened with a loud squeak of rusted hinges, revealing what was contained in the room.

The walls were painted pink with white dots, the floor made of liliac moquette; a small poplar chair painted red was also there, along with a small blue table of the same material as the chair, a round wicker basket lay in a corner of the room, a big wardrobe near the window, with blue shutters and pink walls, a bookshelf with only three books... in other words, the room was furnished like one of a little filly.

In fact, Twilight herself, while staring motionless at the interior of the chamber, could not believe that what she was seeing was her room. She remembered that before leaving her native home for her studies she had left a pretty spartan room behind, with a military-style bed and huge piles of books scattered all over the place.

The white mare, blissfully unaware of the utter surprise of her daughter, chirped:

"Look how I redecorated your room! It was so... depressing! I think it is so much better now, don't you agree?"

The purple pony kept her jaw open in surprise.

"Wow! I've never seen you so positively surprised! Now, come on, get on bed, so we can talk."

Twilight Sparkle snapped out from her stupor, and decided to obey, since some talking could give her clues about what happened while she was away, and why Twilight Velvet had forbidden everyone from entering the room.

As she sat down on the bed, Twilight Velvet sprawled on the moquette and said:

"Twily, sweeatheart, I know you don't like to stay with the other fillies, but..."

Twilight reacted in rage:

"Fillies? Stay around them? Mother, I am a grown pony now, I shouldn't have to attend to Kindergarten and interact with three-years-old fillies! I'm here just to do time for a penalty given by Celestia!"

Velvet, seemingly unaware of the meaning of her daughter's words, giggled slightly, and said:

"I know you are a big pony. But you still have to see the others of your age, if you want to be even more bigger."

Twilight flailed her hooves in desperation and skimmed saliva in wrath: "Mother... I mean... I am a mare, I am going to repeat it, I AM A MARE! A M-A-R-E! Not an ignorant three-years-old filly with difficulties in both control of the bodily functions and the social relations! If I am going to attend to the Kindergarten, it's only because I got punished with the attendance itself, not because I need to do that! Do you understand that?"

The white mare sniffed, and kept her amplomb.

"Throwing a tantrum won't solve anything, Twily," she said, "you must attend to it."

Twilight Sparkle sighed. Her mother was just openly ignoring what she was saying, and was basically doing a conversation with herself. Clearly, Twilight Velvet went apeshit, and thought that Twilight Sparkle was a three-years-old.

Twilight decided that trying to reason with her mother was impossible and that asking questions about the decoration of the room wasn't going to reveal anything. Trying to play along her rules wasn't going to hurt at all, since nothing could go wrong, nor the things could get any more awkard.

Naturally, the things COULD get even more embarrassing.

The white mare, noticing that her daughter calmed down, smiled and walked towards the wardrobe. She opened one of the shutters with her magic and pulled out a pink box.

As the mare moved towards her daughter with the pack, she said: "Now, Twily, it's time to get the... 'protection' on. You can't keep it all yet."

Twilight Sparkle immediately understood what was going to happen soon, even without looking at the box - she was going to get diapered.

Twilight Velvet put the box down, extracted a purple diaper with her magic, put it on the bed and unfolded it with her hooves.

"Lay down, dear, and lift your rear legs."

By this point, the purple pony wished that she could kill her mother without losing the estate or going to prison. However, she still lifted her rear legs and didn't complain, thinking that by playing along with her mother the madness would stop soon. And so, the garment slided under her bottom and was taped on her waist.

After getting diapered by her less-than-sane mother, Twilight Sparkle proceeded to climb down the bed, and stood up, awaiting the next step of Twilight Velvet's farce/insanity game. As far as the purple pony knew, her mother could try to do... pretty much anything, from ridiculous and incredibly embarrassing dress-ups, to random acts of domestic violence masked as punishments for supposed "Runaway", otherwise called "Having a life outside the parents' home."

But Twilight Velvet was still terminating the first part of her madness. She took the box of diapers in her mouth, opened the wardrobe with her magic, and put the box back in.

She closed the white shutters of the wardrobe and walked towards the bed once again, smiling at Twilight.

"Since mommy is free today and wants to satisfy her precious daughter, I will give you a choice: do you want to go out for a stroll, Twily? Or do you want to stay at home? The choice is all yours."

Twilight reclined her head in a pensive position, thinking about exploiting of the opportunity that her mother was giving her. Her choice was between getting caught by her father, who was quite surely not involved in the sham... but if Night Light was out, then Twilight was going to be humiliated even more in public, and the mare felt that her dignity had ate enough mud for the day. Meanwhile, the other option meant staying at home with her mother around, and since she wasn't in the open, with no escape ways... however, Night Light could still enter the room and try to stop the whole "you are a filly" affair.

Twilight Sparkle tilted her head as she thought about what option to choose. Her mind was processing and trying to calculate all the possible outcomes of each choice. It would be easier, if it wasn't for the regular pokings by Twilight Velvet, who pushed Twilight Sparkle to make her choice before sunset.

After around ten minutes of thoughts, quiet moaning, and concentration-breaking motherly pokes, Twilight came to a decision - go out from the house, and take a relaxing breath of fresh air.

"I'd like to go outside. Take a breath would be wonderful, and it will be a great way to vent out the stress I've accumulated lately," she said, the last words accompanied by a slight hiss and a scolding glare directed on her mother.

The mother didn't pick up the bit of venom in the words of the daughter, and instead chirped happily: "Whatever you wish is an order!" and bounced out of the room. Twilight rolled her eyes and said on reflex: "I hope you don't really expect me to go out with the diaper in plain sight."

It took two seconds to her to realize what she just said, and what she just agreed to let her mother do: in shame, Twilight covered her mouth with her right hoof, and murmured "No", hoping that Velvet was going to pick that.

However, it was too late to retract the statement. The white mare asserted: "You are right, some mean filly would laugh at you, seeing you are still in a diaper. So, let's hide it." Then she propelled herself towards the closet, opened it quickly with magic, scanned the clothes contained in the piece of furniture with her eyes, and pulled out a little blue box, with the label "Della Spora" on the side. Velvet put the box on the bed, slowly opened it, put the lid on the floor, and extracted a folded dress. The dress was, basically, a light gray-dotted pink full skirt full of lacets and plissets, like pretty much any filly's skirt would be, this one just being adult-sized.

Twilight Sparkle could only stare at her mother unfolding quickly the dress on the bed, and tidying up everything at a very fast pace. While she knew that getting dressed in ridiculous costumes and dresses was unavoidable, Twilight wasn't expecting to see her mother so eager to put such piece of clothing on her.

As Twilight continued to stare at a wall, the white mare proceeded to dress up her in a vest, by adjusting the size of the waistline, and closing the chest buttons.

Once the dress was put on, Velvet chirped: "Now you are good to go, dear!"

Then she exited again. Twilight slowly got out of her stupor, sighed in annoyance and followed her mother out of the room, knowing that a world of ridicule coming from other ponies was awaiting her.

Since she wasn't really happy about going outside dressed like that, and trying to change her mother's mind right there was going to be about as successful as trying to eat a soup with a fork, the only prospect of avoiding even more humiliation was her father's intervention. And, knowing him, it wasn't too far-fetched that Night Light would just laugh at the sight of his daughter in diaper and a comic attire, and let Velvet continue treating Twilight like a baby, maybe as an extra punishment, maybe from pure ignorance of the extent of the situation and its consequences.

On other hoof, her father probably wasn't cruel enough to turn Velvet's decision to treat her daughter like a three-years-old into a punishment, nor so stupid to not notice how letting Velvet do whatever she wanted with her namesake offspring could be hurtful for the safety of everypony involved.

Basically, it only depended on whether Night Light was at home or not, and whether or not he was still angry at Twilight for Celestia's punishment.

While she pondered about this, walking with her head bend forward, the white mare skipped happily and hummed a variation of "Quel Mazzolin Di Fiori", still unaware of the true feelings of her daughter about being treated like a little filly and be dressed like one.

Twilight Sparkle followed her mother down the stairs, only to notice that her mother had suddenly stopped on the last step.

The white mare turned her head, and said with her now-signature cheerful voice:

"Honey, I'm going out with Twily now. Are you going to stay in the house, or do I need to take the keys?"

Twilight Sparkle quickly realized that her mother was talking to Night Light.

The masculine voice of the father answered:

"I am not sure. I might stay in the house. But keep the keys in your bag, just to be sure!"

Twilight Velvet nodded, and resumed her walking. Twilight Sparkle decided to use the chance, and ran towards the end of the stairs. Doing so, she knocked her mother to the floor, and cracked two of the marble steps in the process.

While Velvet was busy getting up, Twilight Sparkle with bloodshot eyes appeared at the base of the staircase. Nonplussed and extremely confused Night Light dropped a pile of papers he levitated and stared at his daughter.

"W-why you are... wearing such a weird dress, Twilight? It isn't exactly a mainstream attire, nor would I ever imagine you to like such kind of clothing."

The purple mare stopped dead in her tracks in front of the blue stallion and panted: "I didn't... choose this!... It was... my mother..." then theatrically collapsed.

Night Light did a puckered face at the sight of her collapsing daughter. He couldn't compute what he just saw, since the sight of his adult daughter dressed like a young filly, his wife telling her namesake to not get winded before going outside, and the marble getting cracked by something theoretically weaker than a pneumatic hammer was quite weird.

The stallion asked his wife:

"What's going on, Velvet? Why is our daughter dressed like this?"

The white mare answered with a calm and almost soothing voice:

"Oh, it's nothing. Twily just wants to go out as soon as possible."

Twilight Sparkle raised her head slightly and said, while still panting:

"That's not true, father! She is treating me like a filly, genuinely thinking that I am one! She is convinced that I have some problems with going to the bathroom!" Twilight raised part of the dress with her magic, revealing her purple diaper. "Yes, father: believe it or not, your wife just put on me a diaper without my consent."

Twilight Velvet, keeping her tone of voice, moved towards her daughter and put her left hoof under her chin.

"You know why you are wearing it, sweetheart," said Velvet "it's for avoid causing damage with your little accidents."

Twilight glared at her mother in response.

Night Light was still trying to process what was going on and what to do next, since the situation wasn't really something that usually happened in the household. On the one hoof he wished to give his own punishment to Twilight Sparkle, and letting his wife treat Twilight like a filly seemed appropriate; on another hoof, it was pretty clear that his daughter was stressed enough by Celestia's punishment, and Twilight Velvet's treatment was going to be the last straw needed for true insanity, if left unchecked.

Since the verbal fight between a disgruntled daughter and a willingly deaf wife was going to end up into a physical confrontation between the two mares, the blue stallion tried to use his power as husband and father, saying:

"Velvet, stop this sham right now! Twilight isn't a filly anymore, even if she acts like one sometimes." Night Light then glared at his daughter, who curled up slightly at the gaze of scolding "It doesn't matter how much you wish she was, she simply isn't. So, free her from her diaper and her dress, and let her live like a mare she is."

Twilight Velvet whined: "But she is my precious little filly! She is! She is!"

Night Light sighed. The attempt to use the verbal force had failed miserably. He quickly discarded the idea of physical violence, and tried to go for a diplomatic route, one that could save part of the dignity of Twilight, and trick Velvet into thinking that she is still in control:

"How about... she is under your hoof during the morning, and during the afternoon she is under mine?"

Then Night Light winked at Twilight Sparkle, hoping that his daughter was going to play by the rather favorable rules set by him. That was, if Twilight Velvet accepted.

The white mare put her left hoof under her chin, and remained silent for five, long, stressful, minutes.

In those minutes, Twilight Sparkle saw all the possible humiliations she could receive, in case of rejection of the proposal from her mother; while Night Light was thinking of a Plan B meant for avoiding of such scenario.

Thankfully, Twilight Velvet didn't thought it through, and said:

"I accept: from when she wakes up until the lunch hour, she is mine; in the afternoon, if you aren't away, she is yours."

Twilight Sparkle rejoiced loudly, as she screamed and undressed herself with a single swipe of hoof, throwing the dress and the diaper on the floor, and ran into the small family library; Night Light resumed his paper-carrying; and Twilight Velvet, sighing, went back to her bedroom, ready to come back to her catatonic state she was in before her daughter's return.

After an ample dinner, Twilight Sparkle went to her now-defiled bedroom, ready to have a decent night of sleep before the impending first day of Kindergarten.

She entered the room walking slowly, and moved towards the small window. It opened with a loud squeak, letting in a cold breeze of mid-autumn air, and giving a relaxing sensation to Twilight. Slightly refreshed she turned out the light by clicking a button near the night table, and once the light was gone, the mare placed herself under the light-pink blankets of the bed.

The mare soon realized that, clearly, not every piece of furniture in the room was meant for a pony of adult size: her rear legs went over the edge of the bed, and almost touched ground, like if she was on Procuste's bed.

Twilight retracted her rear legs towards her chest, trying to curl up. However, she felt compressed from doing so, and on the verge of choking to make it even worse, so she rather let her limbs touch the ground, despite how awkward it felt. She then put herself on her back, and stared vacantly at the ceiling, while her mind was buzzing with thoughts and considerations.

"Why has my mother forced this on me? Why did she behave in such... bizzare way? I mean, she has always been overprotective and smothering with both me and Shining, but this… this is insane! What got into her to get this idea, accumulate paraphernalia, and decorate my old room, for the off chance of my homecoming? Why did she just plainly ignore my qualms?"

Twilight yawned.

"I guess I will sleep on it. Maybe I will find the best course of actions in a dream."

Then, the purple mare closed her eyes, and slipped into Luna's Domain.

-

For many, the next day comes by the soft light of the dawn, or the musical chirp of bird.

For Twilight, the next day came with a shake, followed by a soft voice:

"Wake up, sleepyhead. It's time to get ready for Kindergarten."

Twilight recognized the voice: it was her mother's.

Sighing, Twilight said: "One second, mom. I am halfway between sleep and wakefulness."

Then, conquered once again by the tiredness, she dropped her head on the pillow like a stone.

Seeing that her daughter was falling into sleep once again, Velvet decided to skip a passage, and pass directly to the diapering of her offspring. The mare went towards the wardrobe, opened it, extracted the diaper box, put the box at the side of the bed, moved the blankets at one side, took a purple diaper from the box, slided it under her daughter's bottom, and taped it.

By the time Velvet had done this operation, Twilight had woken up and felt the absorbent garment wrapping up her nether regions. Realizing that, she tried to protest, only to recall what the terms of the pact between her mother and her father were.

Groaning at the thought, Twilight jumped out of bed, landed on all four legs, and walked out of the room to reach the bathroom, and do her morning ritual of teeth brushing, bodily functions reliving (after removing the diaper, to avoid giving even crazier ideas to Velvet), and a quick shower.

After doing those tasks in ten minutes, Twilight exited the bathroom, and went downstairs, towards the dining room where the breakfast awaited.

While going downstairs, Twilight tried her best at abstaining from thinking to the upcoming day at the Kindergarten. For her, it was already humiliating and depressing to be at home with a crazed old harpy; thinking about a gigantic group of fillies and colts pointing and laughing at her for her failure surely wasn't something that boosted her morale.

Alas, Velvet could not, or didn't want to pick up the signs of distress and annoyance from her daughter, and, while bouncing on the stairs, she chirped:

"So, Twily, aren't you happy that you are going to meet some fillies that are the same age as you today?"

Twilight, trying to not choke her mother with her bare hooves, grinded slightly her teeth, and said:

"Once again, mother, I won't find any mare of the same age as mine at the Kindergarten." Even if she knew that it was useless to try to talk with Velvet, at least it was a way to vent her annoyance without breaking down.

Velvet turned a deaf ear to Twilight's response, and kept going on, while her daughter returned to her attempts to suppress the anxiety of the upcoming day.

Twilight reached the dining room, and saw the table already laid, and the food being brought at the table in green and blue ceramic plates by Sedula, who greeted Velvet and Twilight while they entered in the room.

Twilight greeted the valet dryly, and sat at one of the red padded chairs near the table made of ebony. Twilight's seat was laid with a pretty colorful, and yet still adequate, selection of porcelains, cloths and cutlery, with a white place mat with blue borders, a white cup with green stripes, and the name of the owner in red gothic types, a plate colored like a bullseye, and a silver spoon with a horn handle.

The selection of food wasn't very big: twenty chocolate chips biscuits, cold milk, a small jug of Neapolitan coffee, a small amount of mushroom ham and ten slices of toasted bread.

Twilight picked ten cookies, put them in the plate, then tried to pour some coffee in her mug with the help of magic... for then see the jug fly at Velvet's direction, enveloped by a white aura instead of a purple one.

"Twily, you can't drink coffee, you are too young for it," said Velvet, while pouring the coffee in her plain blue mug.

Twilight, after hearing what her mother said, tried to change her mind, since she was, basically, addicted to caffeine, and needed her fix especially in the morning, otherwise she would be something akin to a zombie in few hours. Since the attempts of talking like they were both adults failed, Twilight thought that trying to talk and slightly act as if she was just a filly that happened to have a bigger body and a huge vocabulary would have more success.

And so, she said with a slightly higher-pitched voice, so to mimic the one of a filly:

"Mom.. it isn't true that coffee will leave me tired. Please, give me some."

Velvet still refused.

"I don't want to see you bounce around like a rubber ball, Twily. I cannot give you coffee."

Twilight, who was desperately craving for caffeine, tried to reach a compromise, no matter how much the latter was humiliating.

"But... not even the mix between milk and coffee? Not even a small sip? Pleeaaaseee..."

Velvet looked her daughter in the eyes sternly... and passed the jug to her daughter.

"Fine," she said "but you must add milk."

Twilight smiled, and mixed the hot brown beverage and the cold white one, and drank it in a gulp. Done that, she started to slowly consume her cookies, and while eating, she thought about what it got to get her mother listen to her qualms and requests.

Namely, she had to act and speak like a younger pony to get some coffee, and this was done, paradoxically, after hearing that she was too young to drink it. Clearly, Velvet was trying forced regression by subjugation on Twilight, starting from dresses and enforced speech patterns, to maybe reach the point where Twilight would act in every aspect as a three-years old. Clearly, that stage wasn't going to be reached anytime soon, barring unusual changes.

But as long as it served its purpose, and didn't worsen her mental state, Twilight was ready to partially talk and act like a three-years old in front of her mother.

When Twilight finally snapped out of her thoughts, she saw Sedula carrying the plates and the placemats away, and Velvet levitating a small pink smock.

Velvet said with a hint of happiness in her voice:

"Now that you had your breakfast, let's get the smock on, shall we?"

Twilight analyzed the smock with her eyes, to see how old it was, where it came from, and such. Judging by the slightly off patches, the washed-out pink of the "main" smock and the much brighter shade of pink of the smock's extension, and the presence of fluzz, it seemed that the smock was the same that Twilight wore when she was really a filly, just patched up with low-quality pink fabric.

Twilight was going to say something about the outfit, but decided at the last second to stay silent, and let Velvet put the smock on her without putting up any fuss, since it was going to be useless.

Once that was done, Velvet gestured to Twilight to follow her outside, and Twilight complied.

-

Ten minutes of walking in strangely empty streets later, Twilight, accompanied by her mother, reached her destination: the Kindergarten's building.

The structure was delimited by a rusty iron barrier and by a well-kept garden behind the barrier. In the garden, there was a small fountain covered in moss and a crumbling steel octagon.

As for the building itself, it was actually pretty nice to look at: it was a two-floors square building with an architectural style between the Liberty and the Futurism, style that sharply contrasted with the rest of the buildings around, which had an older style.

The walls were brightly colored, as much as an external wall can be brightly colored, and had a big murales over the entrance and spanning for the whole façade. The murales represented a big tree stretching its branches with fruits towards the sky: over the trunk, the word "Knowledge" was wrote in red characters. At the base of the tree, fillies and colts of every race were depicted taking the fruits from the tree.

Sighing, Twilight entered in the courtyard.

Standing at the gate she thought "At least the building won't hurt my eyes when I look at it everyday for four months."

Twilight walked towards her mother with closed eyes and biting her lips, the tension building up step by step, and the fear of what was coming increasing its intensity.

Twilight heard some soft shrieks and giggles. Realizing that she was in the hall of the Kindergarten, she opened her eyes.

The hall was also brightly colored, between several colored flashcards on the most various subjects, and the walls painted in red and yellow. Ten white cardboard arrows were attached to a metal pole in the middle of the hall: on each arrow there was a stylized animal that symbolized each class.

Realizing pretty quickly that she had to follow a direction indicated by the arrows to reach her classroom, Twilight quickly asked her mother what class she was assigned.

Velvet, after a small conversation with a custodian and a teacher about the papers regarding Twilight's position, answered to her daughter.

"Your class is the Chicks."

Twilight thanked her mother, and, moving as fast as she could to avoid getting accompanied by her mother towards the class, she followed the arrows that pointed towards the class where she was assigned.

Few seconds later, Twilight reached her destination, a light yellow door with a cardboard plate that read "Chicks". Slightly sweating in tension, Twilight knocked the door, then lowered the handle.

She opened the door, causing a soundwave of various noises to hit her ears; a wave of the unmistakable stench of corporal functions expelled and left there came right afterwards and hit her nose, followed by a surge of heat. Twilight's senses were overloaded and in short circuit, thus leaving the mare in a stupor.

"So, you are Twilight Sparkle, the… 'odd addition' to my class. I am right?"

Twilight shook her head to get out of her stupor, then looked at her interlocutor. The mare that spoke at her was a unicorn with a light peach-coloured fur and yellow mane.

Clearly, she was the teacher of the class. Twilight answered:

"Yes, I am Twilight Sparkle."

The teacher nodded, and put her right hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Well then, come in the class, so I can introduce you to your classmates."

Twilight reluctantly obeyed the teacher, and stepped in the classroom.

The room, true to form, was occupied by many fillies and colts, who were minding their own business, playing with toys scattered around, drawing something with pastels and doing many other simple activities. Such indifference from the fillies and the colts in the class surprised Twilight, since she was expecting to get some attention from the little ones in the classroom, since they likely never saw a big pony wearing both a diaper and a smock like them.

That is, unless it was suddenly common to send adult ponies into Kindergarten classes.

The teacher clapped her front hooves to gain the attention of the foals present: as much as it seemed impossible, among loud noises and everything, the fillies and the colts immediately stopped dead in their tracks whatever thing they were doing, and like obedient puppies they sat down looking at the teacher.

Once everypony settled down, the teacher began to speak:

"So, do you remember when I talked about your new classmate?"

The foals answered in unison, as if they were a single pony with a stentorian voice:

"Yes, Ms. Nutriz."

Nutriz gestured at Twilight, and continued talking to the foals.

"Well, here she is." Nutriz pointed to the embarrassed Twilight standing near the door "Twilight Sparkle, these are your new classmates!"

Once the small presentation ended, Twilight still unsure about what to say to a bunch of young ponies, stuttered "G-g-ood m-morning…"

The foals looked at Twilight confused, and, in the attempt to know, they broke their strangely disciplined silence, opting instead for chaotic rumble.

Twilight left Nutriz to do her job, and calm down the foals; meanwhile, she tried to think about what else to say to the fillies and the colts, who were surely curious about seeing an adult in their same class.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to the efforts of Nutriz, the foals stopped the rumble, and went silent once again.

"So, here we go. Twilight, something to say to your new classmates?"

Twilight scrunched her face in insecurity, and looked at the floor, unsure about what to say. She was trying to come up with the words, she was trying to think what would have been appropriate in such a situation, what was right to say to a crowd of foals and what was wrong to say, what the conventional signs to do while talking were... it was all so much paradoxically difficult.

After a pair of tense minutes, Nutriz asked:

"Don't you have anything to say? Nothing at all?"

Twilight started to scratch the floor, as if she was trying to dig. She wasn't sure about what to do, now that she had the authorization from the teacher to skip the introduction, and her mind divided in two completely opposite factions.

One told her avoiding presenting herself would not be that bad manner-wise, since she was going to present to foals while begin an adult, and that the foals weren't really going to be offended if she refused to present herself publicly, since it was likely that nopony there would have noticed, so, for once, she could loosen her belt on the matter.

The other one said that, while she was dealing with foals much younger than her and that they didn't know better, skip the presentation would set a bad example the foals by violating a social norm, even if an obscure one. Also, by assuming that the foals weren't aware of such convention, she was underestimating their knowledge, and therefore insulting silently their intelligence. Or, even worse, considering them unworthy of her attention. Naturally, Twilight didn't really think any of these, so, if she wanted to avoid to look like she was thinking such things, then she should present herself.

While Twilight's mind was arguing over that, Nutriz kept poking the mare, hoping to get her out of her indecision into the normal course of the actions.

Finally, tired of keeping Nutriz waiting for her, Twilight thought:

"Let's ignore it for now. I can eventually apologize later if somepony gets offended. If they really want to know, they will ask me questions in a more relaxed situation. But now it's time to get to 'work'."

She raised her head, and walking towards the crowd of foals she said: "Nothing to say, let's move on."

Nutriz, with a sigh, said to the foals that they could dissolve the formation, and get back to their activities: they complied with a loud shriek.

While some of the young ponies went back to the activity they were doing before receiving the order of grouping, others, predictably, circled Twilight and started to pull her smock in attempt to get her attention. The questions filled the air like a thick fog of gnats.

"Why so sad?"

"Why you are here?"

"Mommy told me that the big ponies went to work, not here..."

"I thought that big ponies didn't wear nappies..."

Twilight, seeing the faces of the questioning foals, some doing puppy dog faces, some simply asking with a cute frown, decided to just explain her whole story. After all, she decided not even one minute ago that she was going to tell everypony that asked, and she wanted to keep that half-promise.

"Well, my story is complicated..." started Twilight while smiling weakly, "but I am going to try anyway. See, I am the pupil of an important teacher..."

Twilight decided to omit that her mentor was Princess Celestia, so to avoid to accidentally tainting princess's imagine and spreading the news that Celestia had just punished her student in an unorthodox way. So, she decided to just make up the entire story basing it on her experience, so to avoid any possible reference to Ponyville incident.

"Three days ago, while I was doing my studies for her, I realized that I forgot to do a report about what I had learned. I am a very organized pony, but I tend to break down easily if something goes wrong and do stupid things to fix the error. That time wasn't an exception.

I tried to create it on the spot, but to no avail. So I tried to steal the work of one of my companions. However, my companion reported my misdeed to the teacher. The teacher scolded me, and decided to send me to the Kindergarten. And here I am, among you with a diaper and a ruined smock."

She looked at her young audience again, and saw confusion and incredulity on their little faces.

A white filly with a black spot on her face and a black mane said timidly:

"I did not understand, Twilight..."

A green colt joined his female mate in the lack of understanding, and so did the other fillies and colts that grouped around Twilight.

Twilight, smiling nervously, was not sure how to deal with their lack of , since she didn't think about how to tell her story, and she was not unsure about the words.

She tried to cop-out with the simplest of excuses, by saying "Bah, let it go. I am not sure if I can tell my story to you without causing further confusion to you."

They fell for it. The white filly shrugged, and the others, flopping their ears, expressed their disappointment

That done, the foals dispersed, leaving Twilight thinking about what to do while she was in the class.

Looking around the room, which was in the usual lack of order typical for a Kindergarten class, Twilight noticed the presence of a small table in an corner of the room.

Three fillies sat by the table, probably drawing something.

Twilight decided to get to the table, and draw, at least to pass some time without feeling too silly.

And so she did.

-

After the rough start of the morning, Twilight was starting to feel a bit less embarrassed about being in the Kindergarten. Granted, she still wasn't happy about that, nor was she glad to stay there, but compared to the ideas that she had done on the matter, it wasn't so awful either.

After all, she had imagined foals mocking her mercilessly, teachers behaving haughtily towards her... overall, a bad place.

But none of those fears actually realized. The fillies and the colts were mostly indifferent, as if seeing an adult dressed like them was normal, or if not indifferent, they seemed genuinely interested in finding out what happened to her, without any hint of sarcasm or attempted jokes. Nutriz was just uncomfortable seeing Twilight among the foals, but she wasn't disdainful towards Twilight.

Now Twilight was just drawing various things on a piece of paper, waiting for the morning to end, and ignoring the various sounds emitted by the foals that minded their business around her.

While she was coloring a part of her piece of bad art with a yellow crayon, Twilight felt pressure on her lower body, a sign that a bodily function of the same color as the crayon needed to be expelled.

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, and stared emptily at the light blue wall front of her.

She knew that, sooner or later, this was due to happen. But Twilight had hoped that the stimuli wasn't going to kick in until five hours from the last drink. Namely, just after exiting from the building, finally free.

But a small anticipation of the stimuli would not have been a big deal per se in any situation, since she always could get to the bathroom.

But, as it was now, she was still under the rules of the Kindergarten. And she still remembered that one of those rules boiled down to "The use of the bathroom is limited from a certain hour to another."

Twilight knew that said rule was made for the purpose of teaching the foals to get to the bathroom at intervals (over to the obvious purpose to not let them go without supervision), and so, maybe, the rule didn't apply to her. But, considered the fact that Nutriz treated Twilight as if she was really a filly attending to the class minus the size and the speech abilities, Twilight thought that the teacher was going to keep the same line even on the bathroom use.

Either way, she was determined to not use the diaper that her mother "gently" put on her, as to avoid weirder processes in Velvet's mind when she was going to come back home.

Twilight quit staring at the wall, and in order to distract herself from the sense of urgency, came back to drawing.

For a while, it worked.

Then she put down the crayon box for few seconds. When she tried to grab it with magic, she met resistance.

"Hey! Gimme that!" said a squeaky male voice.

Twilight looked at the box of crayons, and saw a gray colt with a brown mane grabbing said box with his little hooves.

Sighing, Twilight let the crayons get in the hooves of the colt.

Now, left alone with her bladder pressing, Twilight looked around her, craving desperately for a wall clock somewhere in the room, so to know how much time was left before the end of the morning... or, at least, of the hour.

She looked at the eastern wall, to find it devoid of any clocks.

Her eyes jerked towards the western one, the one covered in shelves and books. However, from distance, she could not see the presence of one of the precious time-measuring mechanical devices. But she wasn't losing hope, since it was possible that a clock was there, just covered by the books and the objects kept there.

She walked towards the shelves, and once there, she started to look for a clock again. She looked behind the line of hardback small books. She looked behind three big dolls. She looked behind some boxes

But, alas, no traces of the clock were found.

While searching, Twilight felt the pressure on her bladder growing stronger and stronger. And, with the pressure, her desperation grew proportionately.

Panicking she looked at the northern wall, the one that had the door. Nothing at all.

Then she looked at the southern one, and finally she found a clock. Or, at least, the closest thing to a clock she could get there.

Namely, a cardboard circle, divided in colored and labeled sectors, with some shapes in the sectors, and a purple arrow in the middle of the circle, hanging from a wall. Twilight could tell that the colored circle, along with the arrow, meant to represent a clock.

Even if it wasn't what she was expecting, it was something that could give her a hint about how much time she had to hold on, before having free access to the bathroom.

Twilight walked closer to the cardboard clock, and saw what "time" it was: "Free Playing," with a stylized drawing of a ball and a doll in the part to express the concept.

The "Free Playing" part was followed by a smaller slice, labelled, unmistakably, as "Potty Time."

This section, symbolized by an open diaper and a toilet, was the time that Twilight was waiting for impatiently.

She cheered silently, for then noticing another teacher, her name Lux Foal, looking at her wristwatch.

Twilight immediately moved away from the cardboard circle towards the middle of the room, then pointed her stare at the clock, waiting to see one of the teachers move the arrow to the next part, signaling that it was time to let the banks down.

Each step of Lux appeared to last an eternity to the desperate Twilight.

Lux reached the cardboard clock, and moved the purple arrow from the "Free Play" section to the "Potty Time" section.

Twilight's eyes, like her surname, sparkled of joy.

Lux clapped her hooves to call the attention of the fillies and the colts in the class, to herd them and guide them to the bathroom.

Twilight was so happy that the moment had arrived, that she forgot to keep the urine in the bladder.

The result was predictable.

The diaper became soggier and warmer as a result of the absorbed urine, and the purple of the garment shifted towards a lighter tone of purple.

Twilight stood immobile in the middle of the room, while the others exited. She didn't expect that she would use her diaper in a moment of distraction, much less she wanted to use it in front of foals and teachers that expected to see her use the washroom like a big girl.

Twilight was going to freak out, until her rational part took control of her chaotic mind.

"Stay calm! What is done is done! Don't act like a filly once again, and just humbly ask Nutriz or Lux to be changed. Even if they don't have adult-sized diaper, they will sure take care of your nether regions."

And so she got in line like everypony else in the class, as if nothing had happened.

The group walked in line through the hallways until they reached the bathroom.

Once there, Lux opened the door of the bathroom, then turned her gaze towards the foals.

"So, somepony here needs a change, right? Lift your hooves if you do, please."

Like expected, some of the foals lifted their hooves to signal their need of a diaper change.

A bit uncomfortable of doing that, Twilight blushed, grinned, then lifted her right hoof.

Lux roll called the roll with half-closed eyes the ones that had lifted their hooves. She called some of the foals, then she realized that Twilight had lifted her hoof. The teacher stopped her call for a brief moment in confusion and doubt, for then resuming with a shrug.

Done with the roll call, Lux Foal called the ones that lifted their hooves, and told them to follow her in the other room, leaving the group in the bathrooms to Nutriz's.

Twilight let the other foals pass in front of her, before she also entered the rather small room that served as a place for diaper changing.

The room was furnished simply, with just a changing table with two drawers for baby powder and wipes, a waste basket in a corner, and piles and piles of boxes of diapers in another corner. The walls where light blue, with a badly-concealed rotor in the ceiling.

As soon as every foal that claimed to have wetted or messed him/herself was in, Lux called the name of the first foal that entered in the room.

"Pearly Handle."

The white filly met before stepped in, then she was lifted on the table by Lux's magic.

Once there, Lux proceeded to clean up and change Pearly Handle.

Then of Olive Oil.

Then of Lex Populi.

Then of Orvosi Ostoba.

And then another one.

And then another one.

And on, and on, until, finally, it was Twilight's turn.

When she was finally called by Lux, Twilight, blushing and with a nervous smile, walked towards the teacher.

The mare, after taking a quick look both at table and Twilight, told ot the aforomentioed mare to lie down on the floor.

Unsurely, Twilight complied.

Lux untaped quickly the used diaper, slid it out, turned it into a ball, and threw it in the waste basket. Once done with that, Lux dried the fur of Twilight with a pair of wipes, powdering it up.

Twilight, thinking that Lux was done with it, started to raise... only to receive a silent order of staying down from the teacher. Unaware of Lux's intentions, Twilight kept lying on the floor, waiting to see something happen.

Lux started to disassemble the piles of boxes in the corner, until she revealed a red-and-blue box. This box was labeled as "Diapers 35-40 Kg."

Twilight snorted, at the thought that even the non-crazed teacher was going to put on her a diaper.

Lux, noticing Twilight's reaction, murmured while taping the diaper on the mare.

"It's only a way to trick the foals into not go in a tantrum over the diapering."

Done the diapering, Lux helped Twilight to get up on her hooves, and, done that, Lux playfully patted Twilight's diaper.

Sighing, Twilight exited from the room, and, along with her younge classmates, she returned into the classroom.

When she was finally back in the classroom, Twilight decided to look how much her dignity ate some more mud, by looking at the desing of the diaper.

And it ate a truckload more of mud: the diaper had foalish designs and patters, like cartoonish cats and dogs, on it. It also had a pair of lacets on the back.

* * *

Few Hours later, in Ponyville...

The barn was ready and furnished to host a meeting. The chairs, created in few hours from wooden scraps, were barely standing up, a condition that made them suitable to be sat on. The table was a poker table with a missing leg, and was standing up thanks to the elaborate and overly complicated method of stacking books in place of the missing leg. The floor was littered with fine-quality hay.

The five friends of Twilight were sitting on the chairs, and talking about the hottest topic of the moment. Where in Equestria Twilight Sparkle was, and if it was recoverable.

So far, the meeting had decided that no, Twilight wasn't telling a lie, when she said that she was going to Magic Kindergarten for a term.

Now the question was whether to try to save her from the punishment, or just visit her from time to time.

Rainbow Dash beat the hoof on the table, causing it to tremble.

"We must act! What Princess Celestia has done to our friend isn't right. It's downright wrong! It's..."

Applejack huffed.

"You repeated that statement ten times, Rainbow. Saying it again ain't going to work out. And we still are not convinced to go against Celestia..."

Rarity interrupted Applejack.

"Not directly, at least. Break one of the windows of the Kindergarten and attempt to foalnap Twilight seems pretty uncouth and foalish to me."

Rainbow answered back.

"And what's your plan, Miss 'It's unsure.' ? Are you going to invite Celestia to the spa, and hope that it's going to release Twi as result?"

The white mare gave a huff of superiority.

"No. My plan is simple, albeit not very exciting."

The mares looked at Rarity in curiosity, and the latter started to talk with a voice that resembled the one used by the αγγελος.

"My idea is to use a lawyer or a notary, and free our friend with legal cavils.

As far as Twilight told me, she is out of the school system and, as such, she cannot obviously return into it unless Twilight decides so. And that's one point in favor of this solution, since it means Princess Celestia broke an unwritten law.

Celestia also gave this punishment to Twilight without a provocatio ad populum, if she is considered anything but a true teacher to Twilight in legal terms; or she just sent her student several classes behind, something that a teacher cannot do.

So, if we recruit a notary or, at least, somepony expert in Law, we should be capable to understand better what to do, and free Twilight in no time."

Pinkie Pie said:

"Boooring."

"Well, in this regard, Pinkie is right. An attempt to solve this problem in legal way will cost us too much time. So much time, that we could just wait the end of the term."

"Also, I don't like to get involved with loads and loads of fancy papers."

Rarity rolled her eyes.

"And what are your proposals, besides doing a dynamic entrance in the Kindergarten and foalnapping Twilight?"

Pinkie Pie, slightly bouncing, spoke up.

"We should get there, and have a huge party with Celestia. If we pull it off well, maybe she will free Twilight!"

Rarity sniffed.

"Maybe... maybe. But it's unlikely."

Pinkie Pie huffed

"Come on! But, whatever, I can do that when she is free once again. Any other ideas?"

Applejack pounded her hood on the table, creating a crack.

"We should visit her at very least. At least show that we still care for her."

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie agreed.

Fluttershy added with a timid voice "Mmm... I think that we can also come over with some gifts. Oh, and if you think it's alright, we can also visit her while wearing smocks, like if we are also punished like her..."

"That sounds like a good idea." Applejack referred to Rarity, who had a lost gaze.

"Rarity, can you please create five smocks for us? We had an idea..."

Rarity, startled, jumped three meters in the air, and screamed an incoherent phrase in an unknown tounge. Done that, Rarity asked what was the question.

"I asked you if you could create five smocks for us, since we have a plan."

Rarity, smiling nervously, remaining silent.

After three minutes of silence, Rarity spoke up.

"Yes, I can do that. Surely, why not?"

Applejack exclaimed: "Then it's decided! We will visit Twilight with smocks on!"

Then Applejack pounded the hoof on the table again, this time breaking it with a loud crack, and causing Fluttershy to take cover and whimper.

While the others tried to save Fluttershy from ingesting a makeshift cyanide pill, Rarity murmured

"I am not sure about the smocks. I mean, we should fabricate documents about our position first, if we want to visit Twilight while she is in the kindergarten class. Also, I think that I am going to be the only one allowed in. Either way, this is going to end badly."

-

Still the Apple Family's property, but in another part, three fillies, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo, were discussing in their clubhouse on a tree.

"We tried that again and again, Scootaloo. Also, I don't really feel in the mood to get hurt badly and go to the hospital. I really don't like syringes and such"

Scootaloo, while doodling rainbows dripping blood on a piece of paper, said.

"Then tell us what to do. I don't really want to resort to the magic accidents of Sweetie Belle to pass my time, especially if those come with other kinds of accidents..."

Sweetie Belle, who was crawling on the floor in boredom and thoughtfulness, immediately jumped and said with her squeaky voice.

"I can't help it if that happens! And my magical accidents aren't so bad!"

Then, while talking about that, Sweetie Belle remembered something.

"Now that you make think about magical problems, what happened to Twilight? I didn't see her this morning, neither in the Library nor at the Corner."

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle with incredibly surprised eyes, and open mouths.

"What? What happened?"

Applebloom moved her left hoof up and down slowly.

"You are telling me... that you still don't know what's the big news of the past days?"

Sweetie Belle reclined her head sideways to express her confusion.

"What big news?"

Applebloom hissed like a locomotive for few seconds, before frantically moving her front hooves up and down.

"You know... the news that said that TWILIGHT HAS LEFT THE TOWN TO GO TO THE MAGIC KINDERGARTEN BY CELESTIA'S WILL?"

Sweetie Belle put her hooves in front of her mouth.

"Oh my gosh, that's... really bad. Was it for the incident with the doll?"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, while Applebloom twitched like during an epileptic attack on the floor.

"Yes, Sweets, and what for otherwise?"

Cracking with her voice, Sweetie Belle answered.

"Who knows."

That said, Applebloom stopped, and collapsed on the western wall of the clubhouse, panting like a bellow.

For few minutes, there was only the heavy breath of Applebloom.

Then, Sweetie Belle had an outburst of intelligence.

"Wait a minute! Princess Celestia is Twilight's teacher, right?"

Applebloom, still panting, answered.

"Technically, Celestia is Twilight's mentor."

"Whatever, I think that it doesn't matter much. What I am trying to say is, if Celestia is Twilight's teacher, then how could she send Twilight back to Kindergarten?"

Applebloom expressed her opinion on the matter.

"Duh, Celestia is the princess, she can do whatever she wants to. She can send Twilight back to Kindergarten anytime she wants to."

Sweetie Belle answered back.

"Are you sure? Sometime ago I've read some big books about the laws of Equestria, while I was bored while at the notary with Rarity. One of those books was called the... 'Una Natio Sancta ex Tribus Gentibus' I think. It was full of big and complicated words, but, for the few things that I could understand, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are under the same law that regulates the citizens.

This means that, as 'Private Citizen,' whatever it means, she is under the same law that every other pony is under too. And, if one of the princess happens to have an additional duty to the one of ruler of the nation..."

Applebloom completed Sweetie's sentence

"She is bound by the same code of rules that bounds the profession... I know this, but I don't get what is the goal of your lecture."

"What I am trying to say is this: if Princess Celestia is Twilight's teacher, and Celestia is bound to the Teacher's Code Thingy or something like that, isn't the punishment of Princess Celestia a bit too much? Or downright wrong?"

Applebloom looked quizzically at Sweetie Belle, while Scootaloo scratched her head.

"I don't understand, SB. What's the connection between the rules that the teachers must follow, and Celestia's choice of punishment against Twilight? I mean, it's true that we never saw Cheerilee do something like that to any of us, even after the bigger fights during the recess; but I think that's a completely different thing."

"Yeah, Sweets, what is the connection?"

Sweetie Belle huffed.

"Don't you understand, Applebloom? We got up on all sorts of things at school, and yet we never heard nor received the punishment of degrading. If such a thing even remotely existed, then why have we never heard of it, even if we should have? I think we should go deeper. We should go, and check if such a thing as 'degrading' exists."

Scootaloo spitted on the floor.

"Oh, come on! You are not really thinking that we are going to follow you in the pursue of books that we can barely lift, let alone understand!"

Applebloom put her right hoof under her small chin.

"Well, it does sounds like a good idea to me, since we didn't really organize something today. If for once we do something different, what hurt could it bring to us?"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, and walked towards her farm-breeded friend, "No hurt can come from that," Scootaloo took a pencil, and started to wave it like a cane "but reading books written in difficult words and on a cryptic subject matter is bound to cause one thing, and one thing only to me. And that thing is boredom."

Sweetie Belle pouted.

"You are always refusing to do any activity that is remotely connected to books and such. Culture doesn't bite, you know? Also, if you don't want to do it for ourselves, at least do it for Twilight. She is one of the few friendly adults in this town, and she has always been helpful. We should at least try to see if there is something we, as fillies, can do."

Silence followed.

The three fillies exchanged gazes of various kind and purpose. Sweetie Belle was looking at Scootaloo with puppy eyes; Scootaloo was looking at Applebloom with a stern gaze; and Applebloom was silently begging for help to Sweetie Belle.

A long, unusually silent time passed, but it was finally broken by Scootaloo's words.

"Alright, whatever," she said resignedly "But don't expect to see me do this everytime. Come on, let's get on my scooter."

The other two fillies immediately took the helmets, and jumped on the wagon of the scooter.

When finally Scootaloo was ready, she asked.

"So, is our destination the Library? Or do you have a better idea?"

"No, our destination is not the Library. Our destination is Ugodan Birokrat's office. He should be able to tell us what we are looking for, and hopefully he isn't too busy right now."

Scootaloo opened her mouth to question Sweetie's decision, but decided to ultimately keep it shut. Even if she wasn't sure about that, and she wasn't really dedicated to do that, Scootaloo thought that if Sweetie Belle and Applebloom agreed that the best course actions was to contact Silver Spoon's father, then she had no choice but let them try, no matter how awkward or even bad the things could go.

So she proceeded to take speed with the scooter, and to move towards the office of Ugodan Birokrat.

-

Ten minutes of motorized movement later on the strangely crowded streets of Ponyville, the three fillies finally reached their destination.

The building that contained Ugodan's office was pretty simple in its design, because it was just a big gray square stretching towards the sky for three storeys. On the left side of the building, on a part of the building that had lost many flakes of plaster, showing the red and black bricks behind, there was a small parking lot for small vehicles. Scootaloo parked her scooter there.

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom jumped down the wagon, and reached the doorbell, while Scootaloo secured the vehicle to the wall with a chain found there and the lock that she kept in her helmet.

When the three were finally all in front of the door, and when they found the office's doorbell, they proceeded to create a pyramid with their bodies, in order to reach the button of the doorbell.

Scootaloo placed herself near the doorbells. Applebloom climbed Scootaloo's back, and tried to stretch towards the buzzer, hitting accidentally three other buzzers, before pressing the right button.

A female voice filtered by the radio spoke up, while Applebloom jumped down the back of a pained Scootaloo.

"Who's there?"

Sweetie Belle immediately answered.

"I am Sweetie Belle. I am sister of Rarity, one of the Notary's clients. Can I enter?"

Few seconds later, a loud thud, signaling that the door had been open from the inside, was heard. The three pushed the door, and entered in the building. The hall of the structure was not something really interesting, since it was a room that contained just a table made of down tree and acacia and a series of niches in the wall that kept the emergency keys for the occupiers of the building.

Since the usher wasn't there at the moment, the three went straight to Ugodan's office.

"Boy, this place looks depressing," said Scootaloo, whispering like if she feared to awake a gigantic beast lying in the walls of the room or in the stairs.

While Sweetie Belle was climbing the steps, she spoke to Scootaloo.

"If you consider this depressing, then a nice surprise will await you, once in the office of Ugodan."

Scootaloo stopped for a moment at the base of the stairs.

"What surprise?"

Sweetie giggled.

"If it's a surprise..." then she resumed her climbing along with Applebloom.

Scootaloo was going to ask another question, but she decided to shut up, and just go along with the bizarre choices of her friend. Hopefully, the "surprise" wasn't going to be an unwanted "touching session."

One flight of stairs later, they finally reached the glass door of the office. The big glass of the door had the words "Notarial Associated Studio Silver Stamp & Ugodan Birokrat."

"Here we are," said Sweetie Belle "Brace yourself for what's coming." Then she pushed the door, revealing...

A white hallway, with white floor, white walls, black sofas... and display cabinets containing toy soldiers and trains. LOTS of trains and toy soldiers. Toy soldiers and trains of any colour, kind, and size, of any time period and material, of any theme.

All of this kept on the walls, both lateral and frontal, sharply contrasting with pretty much any other thing in the building or the office.

Scootaloo's jaw dropped, and her eyes remained still. Ditto for Applebloom. Sweetie Belle playfully poked at Scootaloo.

"Do you like it?"

Scootaloo exited from her stupor.

"I like it? Yes. But I am mostly surprised by this. I mean, I've always seen gray and dull offices, and those are the first thing that come to my mind when I think of 'office.' Also, the owner of this collection surprises me. Not even in my wildest dream I would have imagined that the father of a stuck-up filly had a collection of anything, let alone a collection of cool things!"

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.

"It's 'talius pater, talius filius', not 'talius pater, talia filia', Scootaloo. If Ugodan is a nice pony, it doesn't mean that Silver Spoon is nice."

"Still. He could have..."

A creak from the other side of the room overpowered the sound of Scootaloo's words. From the other side, a stallion with black coat and a white spot on the muzzle, gray mane, curled up mustaches, entered in the waiting room. Applebloom hissed, and whispered to her friends.

"He's coming. If we want his attention and benevolence, we should not say anything about his daughter and how she raised her."

The other two fillies nodded, as Ugodan walked towards them, and greeted them all.

"Ah, gospodica Sweetie Belle, it's a pleasure to see you!"

"Good morning, sir Ugodan."

Then Ugodan noticed the presence of other two fillies in the room.

"Uh, hello there, ždrebica cuta and ždrebica naranča. Are you with Sweetie Belle?" said Ugodan while getting near with a swinging movement, movement that upset Applebloom and Scootaloo.

"They are my friends Applebloom and Scootaloo. Applebloom, Scootaloo, meet Ugodan Birokrat."

Applebloom stretched her hoof.

"A-a pleasure to m-meet you sir…"

Scootaloo silently stretched her own.

Ugodan proceeded to shake their hooves, and, still with a swinging movement, he moved towards the door asking:

"So, now we acquainted ourselves, can I kindly ask you to come in my studio? Once there, we can talk in peace, with my secretaries out of the way. Don't worry about how much time you take to, I have plenty of time today."

Sweetie Belle nodded and walked behind the black notary. The other two stood there, unable to tell if going in the room was going to be a "stranger trap" that Sweetie Belle accidentally started, or the notary was just weird.

"That notary seems a walking stereotype of… how it's called… 'micropedrast' ?"

Applebloom whispered in Scootaloo's ear.

"It's 'poularast.' Anyway, yeah, it doesn't seem so trustable. I am not certain if entering in that room is going to be something that I will regret."

"Me too. But I guess that, if he does something suspicious, we can always run away. Or jump out the window, if he locks the door."

Applebloom sighed.

"Alright. Let's do this."

And they finally entered in the room.

Once the three were in the room, Ugodan took the key that was on the long table, and locked up the door.

"There! And now, no one but us can exit and enter from this room!"

The statement didn't reassure Applebloom and Scootaloo, and made them smile awkwardly, and look around for an exit, while Ugodan Birokrat sat on the chair at the opposite end of the table.

"Tell me, what is the reason that caused you to visit my small and cozy studio?"

Sweetie Belle jumped over one of the red padded chairs.

"We are here, Ugodan, because I, and my friends, have doubts about some laws."

Ugodan put his left hoof under his chin, and asked with the same unsettlingly cheerful voice:

"Tell me more, I am interested to know."

"One of the friends of my sister, Twilight Sparkle, has been punished by her teacher, Princess Celestia, with being sent back to Magic Kindergarten, and attending to it for four months. Now, a doubt came to our minds: does the punishment of 'degrading' exist in the school system? Is the Princess authorized to do that?"

Birokrat moved his chair closer to Sweetie Belle, alarming the other two fillies a bit.

"Vrelo, the punishment of 'degrading', as you call it, doesn't actually exist, if it's what I understood, namely, the process of sending a student or a pupil back one or more grades for around a term. And, since the Princesses are bound by all the other laws, I'm certain that even if they happen to take another duty other than the one of a ruler, they still can't create a punishment iz nikako without a good reason."

Ugodan moved towards the bookshelves full of books, and extracted the book labeled as "Una Natio Sancta ex Tribus Gentibus", and another labeled as "Scholastic Law."

Done that, he put down the books, and, while flipping the pages, he continued talking.

"So, tell me Sweetie Belle, what has Twilight done to be punished?"

Sweetie Belle admitted. "I don't remember. You should ask either Scootaloo or Applebloom."

The two unsure fillies had a shiver run down their spine, as Ugodan asked them to sit down, and to reply his question. Applebloom sat down slowly while looking around, and Scootaloo remained still, saying that she was fine as she was.

Applebloom told the whole story to the notary, and, when she had done the telling, Ugodan started to flip the pages of the first book even faster, until he abruptly stopped.

"Vrelo, what Twilight has done seems something akin to Breach of the Peace, and thus it IS punishable. Ipak, I don't think that any judge and clerk worth his salt would waste time with a process against her. And the Constitution says that Celestia can judge only the gravest crimes. And Breach of the Peace isn't one of those."

Sweetie Belle sighed.

"Ok, understood. Is there anything that I can do to get Twilight out of this situation, now that I know she isn't supposed to be punished like that?"

Ugodan put the books back in their place.

"Sue Celestia. You can do that, since she isn't subjected to any immunities, but that's very costly, and it takes a while for it to have effects. Otherwise, you can try to get a pettifogger to threat Celestia, but I don't really suggest that because, in addition to being very expensive, it's not certain that said pettifogger wouldn't side with Celestia…"

Sweetie Belle smiled while jumping down the chair.

"Got it! Well, thanks Ugodan. Now, can you please open the door?"

Without any other word, Birokrat unlocked the door, and let the three fillies out.

Once out the room, Scootaloo and Applebloom dragged Sweetie Belle away, screaming "Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger!"


	3. Chapter 3

After the awkward moment that happened during the changing time, Lux, Nutriz, Twilight and the foals came back in the classroom to start their routine again. The rest of the two hours weren't really notable for Twilight, since she remained in the corner doing the same thing she had done for the first three hours.

But finally, after two hours among the foals and the chaos, Twilight Sparkle was free to go home, and pass the rest of the day as an adult, since her father was in charge during the afternoon.

After she said goodbye to both the teacher and the foals, Twilight ran out of the building and walked towards her home. Strangely, the streets were as deserted as she found them when she went to Kindergarten.

Arrived at the gate of her house after few minutes, Twilight rang the bell, and waited for Sedula to open the gate .

As Sedula walked along with Twilight, the formed asked to the latter.

"So, Twilight, do you want some help with getting rid of the attire which your mother forced you to wear?"

The two entered in the house, and Twilight climbed the stairs.

"I'd wish to be alone for a couple of minutes, Sedula," said Twilight while walking the stairs "So, no thanks. If I need help, I'm going to ask for it directly."

The old valet nodded, and went to the kitchen.

"As you wish, Twilight."

Done with that, Twilight went to her defiled bedroom. There, she started her undressing: she loosened the string that kept the smock on her body, delicately got it off, then folded it, and put it in the wardrobe. As for getting off her unused diaper, Twilight placed herself back down on the bed, lifted her legs, untaped the garment with magic, slid off the diaper, and threw it in the paper bin in the room, even though it was clean.

Looking decent once again, Twilight went downstairs into the dining room, where the lunch was waiting for her.

The table was set with three seats with a white place mat with laces at the rims if front of each and a small bronze bell at the end of the table.

Twilight's one had a white soup dish with blue stripes, a light blue dinner plate under it. The cutlery was made of steel and had ivory handles, and transparent glass shaped like a stem.

The other seats also were set with that kind of dishes and cutlery, the only difference being the glass for Night Light, an Oktoberfest-sized jug, and Twilight Velvet's porcelain lacking the soup dish.

Twilight sat down on the red padded chair, followed by Night Light and Twilight Velvet. When everyone was settled down, Night Light lifted the bronze bell, then shook it, and proclaimed.

"Sedula, let's start with the First Course!"

The valet answered with a shout.

"Right away sir!" She came in the room with a big steaming bowl a moment later.

Sedula put the bowl in the middle of the table, and served Twilight a ration of peas and cream noodles. Twilight immediately started to eat up her ration in a pretty coarse manner, while Night Light ate his ration more slowly, puffing his chest like a pigeon.

As they ate, Twilight Velvet asked her daughter.

"So, what did you do at the Kindergarten, Twily?"

Twilight literally inhaled some noodles.

"What do you expect? I drew various things. After all, I could not really interact with the foals, since they have other interests, they likely don't understand a good part of my words, and they seem afraid of me."

Twilight asked Sedula to give her some more noodles.

"Somehow, I can understand them. If an adult had come in my Kindergarten class dressed like me, but acting and talking differently, I would have been unsure and afraid too."

Twilight Velvet stretched herself towards her namesake offspring to give her an unexplained kiss.

"Oh, my lovely daughter. Always so grumpy."

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Mother... morning's over. Now it's the time I act like an adult."

Twilight Velvet tightly hugged her daughter, to the latter's dismay and annoyance.

"But you are still my little foal."

"That would sound a lot less creepy and annoying, if I wasn't forced to act like one during the morning."

Night Light deflated his chest, and after gently placing the fork on the plate, he called Sedula to take away the soup dishes, and bring in the salad. Done that, he entered in the discussion.

"About morning and afternoon cycles. The Rotary Society has called. They want me at Romea for a meeting, and I've decided that, since I'm already there, I will pay a visit to all my relatives, and spend some time with them. I am going tomorrow morning."

Twilight's heart stopped for a second. If her father was at Romea, then it meant that Velvet had basically the total control over the day, and, since Night Light was the president of the Rotary at Canterlot, this meant that he could not avoid going, and thus, leaving home was inevitable for at least a day. Twilight still asked, as to know for how long she was going to be treated like a little filly full-time.

"So, how long is this… journey going to take?"

Night Light took some salad.

"Around a week. After the meeting, I'd wish to visit my mother, my father, aunt Lucky, aunt Eraclina, uncle Lionheart, uncle Italiota, uncle Benson..."

Twilight had a void at most of the names mentioned by her father, because she never had heard of them, let alone saw them. But the fact she had not seen a good chunk of the family from her fahter's side was not her concern right there, right now. She was mostly concerned of the pact done just the day before.

"And... about the 'Kid during the morning, Adult during the afternoon' rules?"

Velvet looked at her husband with puppy dog eyes, and started to whimper like a beaten dog. Sighing, Night Light fulfilled his wife's unspoken request.

"As much as it will annoy you, that rule is lifted until I come back."

From nowhere, an orchestra of brass played, and driven by a mysterious force Twilight went in the middle of the salon, and dramatically fell flat on her stomach.

Sedula ran towards Twilight, and asked if she was alright. Night Light scolded Twilight, saying that such reaction was uncalled for. Twilight Velvet kept eating her salad and her helping of tofu as if nothing was happening.

After that moment of commotion, Twilight said that she was no longer hungry, and that she had some important things to do. Before Sedula or Night Light could even ask what she was talking about, Twilight had already ran away into the library of the house.

Twilight opened the cedar wood door with a slam, and started to tear the books away from the shelves.

"'Pedagogy' no. 'Psychosis' no. 'How not to be a good Mother' no. '101 Things to tell a foal from a teenager' no. No, no, no, no"

Those were the only words that Twilight muttered, while looking for a book to do... something. Something to get out of that situation. Something that could tell her what to do. Alas, she did not find any books titled "How to Survive in the Magic Kindergarten as an Adult with an Insane Mother."

Even so, the frantic research served a purpose. It calmed Twilight down, and made her a bit more reflexive.

"Alright, Twilight. Think. You are going to be in the house with your mother. Now, this mother wants you to act like a foal, despite the eclatant clues that you are not, only because you are going to Kindergarten. What do you do?"

Twilight sat on the oak chair near the poplar desk of the library. Done that, she let her gaze wander, so to "catch" an idea

"Maybe I should run away, if this situation is so uncomfortable."

Self-satisfied, Twilight was starting to reorganized the books that she threw on the floor. As she reorganized, however, she spotted a problem in her solution.

"I don't have much money, and I cannot camp out in a tent for four months."

Sighing, Twilight muttered while rearranging the shelves. "If only I could enjoy the same activities that my classmates do... maybe I would bear my mother's behavior more easily."

An idea flashed in Twilight's head, and she jumped in front of the enlightenment. "Of course! I need to learn to act fully like a three-years old, if I want to get rid of this annoyance! After all, my mother seems to have a pretty idealized idea of the foalhood, and the problems that a parent faces with a three-years old foal with lacking control! The tantrums, the constant 'hurting', the constant need to ask her to go to the bathroom every ten minutes, the pickiness in the eating! After a week, she is going to give up, and finally let me live like the adult I am."

Twilight finished ordering of the highest row of books.

"Yeah... but how I can do that? I've burned down all the memoirs that I had of my foalhood, after I turned 13, and it's a miracle that I could not burn down Cadance, how I am gonna do that, if I have only a bare outline of how a foal acts and talks?"

Twilight remained in silent thought, as she ended reordering the shelves. After twenty minutes of thinking and rearranging, Twilight found the solution.

"But of course, my Kindergarten classmates. Just try to befriend them, and look at them. If you do it correctly, you should be able to copy them in times of need with your mother."

Satisfied with herself, Twilight went in her room, and passed the rest of the afternoon and the evening there, waiting for the Sun to set, and the dinner to be ready. 

* * *

A dinner and seven hours of sleep later, Twilight woke up in her rather small bed. Looking outside the window, she realized two things: that the Sun was rising, and that Velvet was going to break in, and start the madness once again. And, this time, it was going to last for an entire day. Since she wanted to keep the dialogues with her mother at the bare minimum, until she figured out a way to wear down her mother's madness, Twilight decided to take the initiative, and diaper herself.

Twilight jumped out of bed and, while walking with a silent step, she reached the bathroom to complete the morning ritual, and free herself of the secretions that could try to exit at the worst possible moment.

Done that, she came back to the wardrobe in her room. Twilight opened it, and extracted the diaper box from the right corner of the piece of furniture. Done that, she walked back to the bed, put the box nearby, lied down, so to make the process easier, extracted one of the purple absorbent garments from the box, slid it under her back and taped it to her waist.

Now diapered and almost ready to go, Twilight levitated the pink smock that she had thrown in the middle of the room the day before, and put it on, fastening the rope and pulling the wrinkled parts of the smock. When she was finally dressed up and ready to start the day, Twilight went downstairs, and, while she waited for Sedula to arrive, she set the table with the usual choice of porcelains and cutlery.

After a while, Sedula Serva entered silently in the house. After greeting, and not receiving response from Twilight, the valet mechanically cooked the breakfast for every member of the family.

When finally everything was done, Night Light, half-shaved and with a dangling tie around his neck, arrived levitating a luggage from upstairs.

"Good morning, Twilight. Did Sedula or you prepare anything special for my departure?"

"No, father, nothing at all."

Sighing, Night Light started to gobble up cookies, and drank the coffee in the cup in one gulp, all while standing.

"That's a pity, but it's okay, since I am in a hurry. Take care of yourself, my daughter, and behave yourself." then Twilight's father ran towards the main door, breaking it.

After greeting her father, Twilight sat down, and quietly started to have her own breakfast, composed of coffee, eggs and bread, all while Sedula tried to fix up the busted door with the best of her abilities.

The peace of Twilight's breakfast was, not surprisingly, broken by a chirp, and hooves tip-tapping on the marble.

"Twiiilllyyy, where are you?"

Twilight grunted at the sing-song of her insane mother, and to avoid troubles. She also drank the coffee in one go, despite the hotness of the beverage, and the feeling of scorched wasteland it left in her throat.

"How is my precious filly doing?" Twilight Velvet sat on the chair with a whirl.

Twilight replied with an acidic tone.

"Very good. At least, until you came in."

Velvet started to eat the remaining biscuits.

"Oooh, we are grumpy today, aren't we?" Velvet, to Twilight's extreme annoyance, pinched her cheeks.

"But I think you are going to be happier, once at the Kindergarten."

Twilight nodded, and said with a sigh:

"Of course, mother."

It was only a half lie: while she wasn't happy to go to the Kindergarten and stay with the foals per se, she was content that, at least, she could study their behaviour, and learn how to mimic it when needed.

Twilight Velvet and Twilight Sparkle terminated their breakfast at the same time. Velvet immediately took away the dishes and the cups, and carried them to the kitchen, where Sedula slowly started to wash them.

Done that, Velvet started to skip towards the door.

"It's time to go, Twily."

Without questions, Twilight followed Velvet outside.

The streets were crowded, but, apart from the curious gazes of few ponies, no comments about Twilight's outfit and destination were made by anypony.

Once again in front of the decorated building, Velvet kissed her daughter.

"See you later," she said with her usual cheerful-and-yet-creepy voice. Twilight, after a moment of confusion and blushing caused by the kiss, united herself with horde of colts and fillies that were entering in the building, heading to their respective classes. Twilight, quite obviously, followed the stream that headed for the class of the "Chicks."

When Twilight entered in the class, followed by the few classmates left behind, Lux closed the door, while Nutriz did a quick name call of the foals that were there. Twilight used the name call as a way to identify each foal, and so track down the ones that could be suitable for her purposes.

At the end of the name call, Nutriz gave the explicit authorization to break loose to the foals. And they complied.

Now Twilight, the only one that remained in the center of the room, proceeded to look at the foals, and see their way of act.

Twilight chose the same corner she had used the day before for draw as an observation spot. This time, she took the black marker and three sheets of blank paper, in order to start to list up the foals that could help in her quest for examples of foals' misbehaving and tantrums.

In the confusion of the class, Twilight saw a scene that got her attention. A light blue colt with a straight red mane was bickering with a pink filly with white curly mane, presumably about the possession of a box of construction blocks, since the colt was keeping tightly a small brown plastic box a colorful block fell from everytime it was shaken. Their movements were visible and clear, allowing Twilight to note easily some possible gestures of an angry 2-years old, but they did not transmitte what the foals were actually saying between each other.

Twilight got nearer, so to be at hearing distance from the bickering between the foals.

The colt said with a strangely familiar voice, one that Twilight had heard some time before, but less raspy, "This box is mine. Hooves off!"

The filly answered with a high-pitched voice.

"No, it is mine and all mine!" She grabbed it, in the desperate attempt to either get it back, or appropriate herself of the blocks in the box.

The colt pulled the box towards himself.

"No! Mine!"

The filly answered with the same reaction.

"It. Is. Mine."

The response of the colt was unsurprising. Pulling of the box towards his chest he yelled:

"Mine!"

And they kept going for a while, before the filly had a burst of magic, one that caused the box to be pulled out of the colt's little hooves, causing him to cry in annoyance/fake pain, and the blocks contained in the box got scattered around the landing zone of the aforementioned box.

At that point, Lux Foal intervened.

"What's going on here?" she asked with a stern tone, one that basically made the legitimate question into purely rhetoric one.

The colt immediately jumped up on his hooves, and, with tears still going down his cheeks, he pointed at the filly and said:

"She stole my box!"

The teacher raised an eyebrow.

"Your box?"

The filly bursted in.

"It was mine!"

The teacher looked at the filly.

"If the box was his, then it cannot be yours."

The filly ignored the phrase of the teacher, and tried to defend her position with her lackluster oratory abilities alone.

"But it was really of me!"

The colt answered back.

"No, it was mine!"

The two foals stepped forward, as to start physical contact, when the teacher separated them with magic.

"So, you say it is yours." The teacher looked at the colt, and he nodded affirmatively "And it is yours." She looked at the filly, and she also nodded. "How about… it's of both?"

The two foals, with the same stubbornness they shared with the drunken and the students hated by every teacher in a school, answered with the most simple of the phrases.

"NO!"

The teacher, after hearing that response, looked at both the foals with a stern glance.

"If you don't want to share it, then no one gets it." The teacher levitated the box away from the reach of the little hooves of the foals. The colt concentrated himself and tried to pull the box out of the control of Lux , while the filly whined.

"And, if you keep trying to get it back, you will receive a time-out!"

The colt gave up, and sighed. The filly, on other hoof, had no sense of when it was time to surrender, and thus launched herself on the leg of Lux Foal, attempting to cause physical harm to the teacher, and, naturally, failing to accomplish her goal.

Lux levitated the filly and, without any other words, she carried her to the room at the opposite side of the classroom. Intrigued by this, Twilight tried to follow the teacher in her carrying, and see where she was going. Twilight stopped herself nearby the door to avoid getting in trouble.

Lux went through the hallway with the filly still firmly in her magic grasp. Even from that distance, Twilight could tell she had a smug face.

The teacher opened the door with one of her hooves, revealing the darkness behind the door. Lux entered with the filly, then she closed the door.

For a few minutes, nothing happened, leaving Twilight holding her breath from the suspense. She could breath once again when Lux came back from the room with the filly hanging her head low walking behind the teacher. The expression of the filly got Twilight's attention, because she had passed from a smug look to a shame-filled gaze, leaving Twilight wondering what could have caused that reaction.

Twilight returned back to the center of the room, and waited for Lux to come back with the filly.

When both were finally back in the room, Twilight decided to get an answer to her question, by asking directly the involved filly.

"Hello there, little one. What's your name?"

The filly answered with slightly broken voice.

"My name is Lecs Populli. What's your name?"

Like she was used to do, Twilight slightly bowed, and tended her hoof towards the filly.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle. Can I ask you a question?"

Giggling, the filly asked back:

"Yes?"

"I saw you getting in trouble, and dragged by the teacher to the room at the opposite of this classroom. I saw you entering there with a sure defiant look, and you exited with a beaten one. Care to tell me what happened?"

The filly raised her smock, revealing a white diaper, with a red arrow pointing at the bottom of the filly, and the phrase "Spank me" over the arrow. Then, the filly sat down, revealing the front of the diaper, who had the phrase "I am a bad filly" over it.

Twilight somehow felt sympathy for the filly, despite the sheer lightness and absurdity of the punishment given to the filly.

"It's ok" Twilight revealed her purple diaper "I, an adult, also wear them. It's nothing that should make you feel embarrassed." Twilight knew that she had just told a lie to Lex, but since she was trying to win her, being honest on everything wouldn't be really useful.

The filly giggled at the sight, and, for some reason, started to poke the diaper, before asking if Twilight wanted to play a game.

Twilight felt a sense of embarrassment and insecurity, similar to the one she had felt when she had come in Ponyville to recruit the Bearers of the Elements. However, at the same time, she felt it different. she scolded herself

"Come on, Twilight, it should not be that hard. You managed to defeat the Chaos made flesh, you cannot be afraid of a filly! If you don't know how to act, just imagine it's Pinkie Pie, but without the reality-bending powers!"

Smiling awkwardly, Twilight asked Lex Populi for a second. Done that, Twilight started to write up her annotations about foals' behaviour and speech patterns.

"They tend to use the Argumentum ad Nauseam to get what they want. They tend to exaggerate the gestures. They may not be aware of the incoming punishments. They tend to change their mind often."

Once she wrote that, Twilight complied to Lex Populi's request of playing. 

* * *

The day after, in Ponyville, with the Sun that had just risen for three hours ago, in the back shop of the Carousel Boutique, Rarity was giving the final stitches to the smocks that she had created under the suggestion given by Applejack while they were discussing about what to do about Twilight's punishment, and under the deadline of two days after the decision. Namely, today.

Said smocks, pretty simple in their design, were light pink like Sweetie Belle's old smock that didn't get lost during the time for some reason, and had several plissets on the flanks, with a pin shaped like the cutie mark of each of the four Rarity's friends keeping the ropes.

As Rarity finished sewing the name of Pinkie Pie on her smock, Rarity heard a trot come behind her. Surprised by that, she rotated her head, and saw her little sister Sweetie Belle walking towards her.

"Rarity..."

While she put down the smock, Rarity asked back to her sister with a slightly surprised tone.

"Uhu... Sweetie... don't you have school today?"

The filly answered with a squeak.

"No, today is Sunday, and so I don't have to go to school!"

Rarity folded the smock, and put it on the small pile of smocks that she had made in the past two days.

"Still, could you please explain why you came in the back shop at this hour?"

Sweetie Belle put her ears down, while speaking with an adorable and contrite voice that sharply contrasted with the one she had before.

"Well, it's about your visit to Canterlot..."

Rarity looked puzzled at her sister, thinking at what could have possible moved Sweetie Belle to remember something that Rarity was going to do.

"Yes, Sweetie Belle?"

The filly continued after several moments of silence.

"Applebloom and Scootaloo told me yesterday of what happened to Twilight, and your plans to go to Canterlot to try to..."

Rarity realized that her attempt to cover up the aftermath of Twilight's incident, as to avoid to worry Sweetie Belle, had failed, and now she was aware that Twilight was in Canterlot, attending to a Kindergarten's class.

"Cheer her up. Yes, cheer up." Continued the filly, while her sister kept staring at her.

Rarity sighed.

"And... why you came over here to say this to me?"

Sweetie Belle sighed.

"I don't know if you can still change your plans..."

Rarity's heart stopped for a second, at the thought of what could possibly be. However, she kept her composure and calm, and asked back with her usual tone.

"I think not... but depends in what way you mean 'change plans'. If you could be more specific..."

Sweetie Belle almost curled up into a ball.

"See, I wished to come with you... you know, with Scootaloo and Applebloom, so to apologize to Twilight for what we had done to her..."

Rarity felt a surge of homicidal rage towards Sweetie Belle, for the worry she had provoked with her attempt to captatio benevolentia for such a thing. However, she stopped such rage, thinking that at least Sweetie Belle showed some care about her sister's programs, and that she considered the idea of refusal.

"I am not very sure, Sweetie Belle... after all, the train will depart at noon, and thus there are only two hours left. I don't know if I can create a smock for you three, especially because I lack your measurements."

Sweetie Belle, after undoing her ball in a whim, slowly stood up on her four legs, her voice expressing irritation.

"Why would we ever need a smock? I didn't said I wanted to go back to Kindergarten! Nor Applebloom and Scootaloo want to do that!"

Rarity shook her head.

"I can imagine, but the smocks I created aren't for that purpose. They are for us to wear as moral support to Twilight."

Calmed down once more, Sweetie Belle asked.

"Show support to Twilight? How wearing a smock is..." Sweetie Belle stopped herself mid-sentence "Oh, right. You are right, but if you cannot make for us three some smocks, going without them will be fine."

Rarity answered with a small snort, and a hint of sarcasm in her response.

"Thank you, Sweetie Belle. OF COURSE we can let you go without smocks, but then you might look not..." She realized how much of a stupid and nonsensical statement she was going to make in front of her sister, and so decided to end it right there, right now. "Actually, nevermind. You take your money for three tickets, and I take some more money for the food. We will pay a visit to everyone else as soon we are ready."

Sweetie Belle nodded, and ran upstairs to take her money. Rarity put the five smocks in a blue bag with a brass button, and proceeded to throw away the scraps of her dressmaking. 

* * *

One hour and half later later, after a rapid drop in at the Sweet Apple Acres to inform Applejack and Applebloom of the sudden change of plans, and a quick visit to Scootaloo's house (devoid of any kind of adult life), the five ponies were at the train station of Ponyville, waiting for the other three ponies to arrive at the station. While the three fillies entertained themselves with just their bodies and a fountain, the two adults talked.

"So, Rarity, do you have everything ready? Some money?"

Rarity pulled out a bag of bits out of her bag, as a silent proof she had them.

"Tickets?"

"Not yet. I thought that we should buy them only when we are reunited."

"Smocks?"

Rariy pulled out the five smocks she had prepared in the past two days.

"As you can see, with so little time, I had to make them pretty simple."

The statement caused Applejack to giggle, causing confusion to Rarity.

"What are you laughing at, darling?"

Applejack voiced her reason for laugh.

"You defined your smocks as 'simple', and yet they are full of plissets, they have triple sizing rope, and our names written in golden sew! If you call that simple, then my fields are just a iugero of terrain!"

Rarity gritted her teeth at Applejack's words, but said nothing, as to avoid starting a useless argument. As soon as Rarity quelled her arguing desires, from above, a blur soared in the vision range of Rarity, and hit the ground with a small shockwave, causing every living being in the range of twenty meters to get knocked down, and the roofs of the nearby buildings to get launched in the air, before returning in their positions.

Rarity coming back on her legs along with the others, after a fast fix to her mane, looked at the crash zone, and saw a cyan pony shape with a rainbow-colored tail waving in the weak wind.

Rarity identefied the shape as Rainbow Dash, and recognized the muffled sounds coming from Rainbow Dash as pleads of help. Rarity started to levitate the dirt around Rainbow's head, while Applejack d as if she was a root of a dead tree, namely, by pulling her out of the hole, to then throw her away in a random direction.

Fortunately for the stunned Rainbow Dash, Rarity caught her while she was in mid-air, painfully pulling out some hairs in the process, but ultimately avoiding some more serious pain. After catching her, Rarity put Rainbow Dash gently on the ground.

While Rarity trotted towards her stunned friend, she said.

"Next time you should be more careful, Applejack. It may have ended with a quick trip to the hospital."

Once she said that, Rarity lightly shook Rainbow Dash, causing the latter to come back to her senses. Naturally, the first thing she thought was about the stunt she had pulled.

"You saw that? I caused a small earthquake when I landed!"

Rarity slightly rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash's comment.

"And you risked to find one of your precious bones broken."

"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash jumped up, causing a cacophony of loud cracks coming from her body "See? I'm fine!"

Rarity, even though she wasn't a trained medical professional, could easily tell that those sounds were sign that a bone had been at least cracked, and that maybe some organs were compressed. And yet Rainbow Dash was showing no signs of pain or difficulties with moving, a sign that maybe she really was fine.

Rarity quickly decided to just ignore that detail, and move along.

"So, anyway, Rainbow Dash, did you call Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy already?"

"I did. I dropped at Fluttershy's place, and she is en route, however, I didn't find Pinkie at the Corner, and from your question I guess she isn't here either."

Rarity was going to answer the question, when Applejack intruded, and answered for her.

"No, she isn't here. I wonder where she is..."

Rarity, after drinking down her own gall once again, tried to politely reinsert herself in the discussion.

"True. But I know our friend Pinkie Pie enough to tell that she hasn't forgotten that. Maybe she is preparing... something."

"Yeah, but what?"

Applejack turned around, and saw a yellow shape with some pink shapes piled up on it flutter about the square towards the station. She recognized said shape as Fluttershy.

"Maybe Fluttershy can tell us." Applejack gestured to Fluttershy as to ask her to hurry up.

The yellow pegasus sprinted, covering the whopping distance of three and a half meters before coming back to normal pace, and, finally, after two long minutes, she reached her friends.

"Oh, hello. I hope I am not late..." Then she put down the three pink boxes she was carrying on her back. On them, there were the words "Pinkie's Special Surprise" written in bad calligraphy, and with the word "surprise" written with two "s".

Rarity looked with curiosity at the boxes, and pondered on their contents. Applejack directly asked.

"What's in the boxes, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy looked with insecurity at the boxes she had put on the ground.

"I don't know. Pinkie just handed them to me while I was still getting ready, saying that I had to bring those boxes to you. I really don't know what they are, but they are pretty light in terms of weight."

Applejack stared at the boxes with a curious gaze, and shook them slightly, causing them to topple. Rainbow Dash, after getting near to the boxes, tried to unfold them, only to get scolded by Rarity.

"I don't think we should open them before the arrival of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash. After all, she could have sent them to us to do... something."

"Yeah, that was clear as the sky today, but why? I mean..."

Rarity tried to end her friend's phrase.

"They are almost taunting you to know what's in there?"

Rainbow Dash nodded.

Rarity levitated the boxes, and put them in her bag.

"Well, you are not going to find out before Pinkie arrives."

Rainbow Dash groaned an "Okay."

As soon as Rainbow Dash expressed her annoyance about not opening the boxes, a pink figure on the horizon arrived, humming a familiar tune as it hopped. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and the others immediately recognized the shape as the one of Pinkie Pie.

Overtaken by the impatience and curiosity typical for their age, the Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately snatched away the boxes, saying that Pinkie Pie had appeared on the horizon and that, therefore, she had arrived.

Rarity and Applejack did not even try to stop the Cmc from doing such action, because they were too busy going towards Pinkie Pie.

Sweetie Belle, after placing the boxes at the base of the fountain's steps, said.

"I am curious, and at the same time, afraid of what's in there... can I be the test pony?"

The other two fillies nodded without question.

Sweetie Belle slowly unwrapped the first piece of pink wrapping, revealing... another layer of wrapping. Then another, and another, and another.

"Umm... I don't think that by unwrapping it gently, we are going to get anywhere soon..." said Applebloom while she watched

"Yeah, I'm too curious to wait around! We shall take one each, and open it like a normal gift!" said Scootaloo, while already grabbing a package.

"Well... alright!"

Sweetie Belle handled the remaining package to Applebloom; then they proceeded to get off the layers very fast. What they found in them, however, didn't please them in the slightest.

The boxes contained pacifiers. Customized, ticked with the addressee's name, colored, 8-years old sized, pacifiers.

"What? A pacifier? For ME? What am I, a baby?"

"Why did Pinkie give me such a gift? Why? Why? WHY?"

"A pacifier? Well, that's weird, but it doesn't seem so awful either. I mean, they look good, for one thing."

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle with an expression that mixed disbelief with disappoint.

While Applebloom kept staring, Scootaloo pressed her nuzzle to the one of Sweetie Belle, and stuttered gibberish before formulating a sentence.

"What's so awful about them? WHAT'S SO AWFUL ABOUT THEM? They are pacifiers, dummies, succhiotti, those are used by foals and by foals only!"

Sweetie Belle stepped back confused.

"And so?"

On the top of her lungs, Scootaloo expressed her frustration.

"AND SO? Do you understand that, if a pony like Pinkie Pie gifts something like pacifiers to us, this means she considers us foals? You know, she thinks we are lacking an important accessory?"

Sweetie Belle shrugged her shoulders.

"And so? We are foals. A little big, but until we have the 'signs of fertility', whatever they are, we are still technically foals."

Scootaloo facehoofed.

"Maybe according to the Bran's dictionary we are still foals, Sweetie Belle, but I think we can confirm that we don't need diapers anymore, and that we don't believe that if something is not there, it never existed."

Sweetie Belle, still with a tone of the one that didn't understand what was being said, expressed herself.

"Maybe Pinkie Pie wanted to pull us a prank?"

Scootaloo blocked herself, at Sweetie Belle's simple and yet reasonable explanation about the pacifiers in the boxes, and the fact that those pacifiers had a name tag for them. Looking with a lost gaze to the sky, the filly said.

"Maybe you are right, Sweets..." Scootaloo glanced over the fountain, and noticed that Pinkie Pie was already talking with the others "But I think that Pinkie Pie has the answer. Come on, let's go."

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked immediately towards the five mares. Applebloom took a bit loger to do so, thanks to her shock.

Once the three fillies had reunited with the five waiting adult ponies, Pinkie Pie immediately asked the Crusaders.

"Did you take the boxes? Did you open them?" Despite the stern words, Pinkie's voice was still cheerful like the usual.

Scootaloo stepped in.

"Yes we did, and we have a question for you..."

Pinkie Pie inclined her head sideways, and grinned.

"Yes?"

Scootaloo took three large breaths, and put her right hoof on her small chest.

"Pinkie Pie, would you kindly explain to me WHY IN THE NAME OF EVERYTHING THAT'S HOLY YOU GIFTED US PACIFIERS?"

Pinkie Pie moved Scootaloo's chin up with one of her hooves, as to make eye contact with the filly.

"Silly Scootaloo, those are not gifts. Those are the dummies that might be used for our journey to Canterlot."

Everypony looked sideways at Pinkie Pie, after that statement. Realizing she had the eyes of her friends and their sisters on her, Pinkie Pie let out a hoof.

"Oh come on! Is it really that hard to understand?"

Rarity was the only one that had the bravery to express her and her companions' confusion.

"Er... yes, Pinkie Pie. I'm afraid that nopony understood your logic. Please, enlighten us."

Pinkie Pie pulled out a big floor lamp from nowhere, and turned it on with the same unponderable force. Rarity was not amused.

"Not in that sense, Pinkie Pie. I meant as: please, tell us why you thought that bringing in pacifiers for my sister and her friends was a good idea."

Pinkie Pie, after gasping and getting the floor lamp out of the way, took the remaining boxes she still had on her back, then swiftly handed them to each one of her companions. Left with one box, Pinkie Pie took it, and after putting it on her side, said.

"Okay everypony, listen up! While I was spending my time doing what I usually do, namely keeping this town happy and working, my flank started to feel funny, like when you..."

Rarity, immediately understanding what Pinkie Pie was going to say, cut Pinkie short to save the innocence of the three listening fillies.

"Yes, yes, we understand, go on Pinkie."

"Anyway, at first I thought it was just another way that my body expressed its approval for what I was doing. Then the feeling returned, this time followed by more trips to the bathroom." Pinkie Pie explained she didn't have diabetes, despite showing some of the symptoms "Anyway, back on topic, I understood it only later on: it was my sense telling something, something I won't tell you to not ruin the surprise. After realizing that there was something being cooked in the oven" a rambling about cookies and ovens ensued "By the way, I decided to consult Sibilla" rambling about the prophet "I asked her about what to do, and she gave me the response 'ibis redibus non Urbe tuae amicae fractae.' I memorized the response, thouth about it, and decided that it was a response that gave me the green light for proceed. I bought my surprises for you before heading here, and here I am!"

During the overly-long explanation, Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep, Applejack had bankrupted a rival apple farm, Rarity managed to fix her mane three times in a row, and Fluttershy had saved three birds from certain death by falling. And they still had time to come back and fake to have listened to everything Pinkie was saying all along.

As soon as Pinkie shut her mouth, Scootaloo asked.

"And... was our surprise supposed to be pacifiers?"

"No!"

Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle sighed in relief.

"There are more things for you and my friends in the boxes!" Pinkie Pie said that in a cheerful tone, a tone that unsettled the three fillies and the four adult ponies.

Pinkie Pie shouted, with even more bio "Come on! Open them! Or shall I start?"

Unsurely, everypony started to unwrap their respective boxes, and they found a green plastic bag in each one of the boxes, with the name of the addressed written with bad calligraphy and misspelled.

Then Pinkie Pie slowly opened the top of the package, revealing the contents of the bag. Namely, light pink diaper.

The sight surprised, baffled and stupefied everyone.

"Is that... a diaper?"

"Yes, silly Dashie! Don't worry, you also have them!"

Rainbow Dash widened her eyes, and stared blankly at her friend, unable to tell if Pinkie had lost her mind completely, or if a grain of sanity still existed in her head. Applejack also stared at Pinkie, but with more sheer lack of understanding than Rainbow Dash. Rarity was more composed in her reaction, but no less creeped out.

"Pinkie, darling... I don't know what brought you to this conclusion, but... this is preposterous beyond belief."

Fluttershy just stared at the diapers, and said with a whisper.

"Pinkie, I know I've often stained your carpet with my pee after your jokes, but... isn't giving me diapers a bit too much? Who am I kidding, you show enough kindness towards me by sharing the humiliation with the others..."

"First, a pacifiers, then diapers? Pinks, what in the name of everything that is holy in this cursed land happened to you? We are not babies anymore!"

Applebloom cried slightly. "So, my fears have become true... I am a baby in the eyes of everypony else..."

In stark contrast, Sweetie Belle touched unsurely the adsorbent garments, before saying.

"They sure look comfy... I don't think that wearing them for a while would be too bad."

Pinkie Pie immediately proceeded to cancel any kind of negative emotion from the faces of Applebloom, by tickling her and telling her that no matter what she was going to be the baby of the Ponyville's branch of the Apple family. And, despite the latter's resistance and lack of will to such act, Applebloom laughed, leaving Pinkie Pie free to act with Fluttershy and the others.

"Oh no, Fluttershy, those diapers are not for your little accidents you sometimes have when I pull a prank on you." Pinkie Pie, somehow, wrapped around Flutterhsy's neck in a menacing manner, unsettling the pegasus. "As I said, Sibilla gave me a favorable response about bringing diapers for us to Canterlot."

Fluttershy, giving puppy dogs eyes to Pinkie Pie and putting her ears down, asked with insecurity.

"B-but why? W-why you thought that i-it was a good idea?"

Pinkie Pie raised Fluttershy's chin.

"It's because my Pinkie Sense told me to do so. I don't know what is going to happen, but I know we are going to need diapers for everypony, and pacifiers for the fillies."

Fluttershy decided to keep her mouth shut about the logic that Pinkie Pie was applying.

When Pinkie was done, she said.

"Now, do we have the tickets already? The train is coming, and it isn't going to wait for us!"

The seven, too confused, tired, or incapable to understand the situation to act, simply followed Pinkie's lead to the train station.


End file.
